The Hojo Project
by Rueh
Summary: The story returns! AXR, AXS, TXC, TX?...not all at once of course! What happens when Aeris and some others are resurrected by none other than Hojo himself? Chapter 6 up finally!
1. The Escape!

**Chapter 1: The Escape!**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the Final Fantasy 7 characters in this story, Square owns them; all original characters belong to Jewel. 

This goes to all of my friends and family members, who are always there for me. Thanks guys...

**Additional Note:** I, Rueh have take over this story at the request of Jewel.  I have not written this chapter or any other up till chapter 20 or 21; I am simply revising her mistakes and adding or subtracting some things here and there.  Well, I hope I can live up her expectations and all you readers.  Please leave me a review telling me how I'm doing.  Thanks, and now for the story.

**FIVE YEARS AFTER AERITH'S DEATH...**

Vincent sat deep in the Silent Forest, high up in the cold dead branches as he attentively watched as Hojo approached the lake's edge where Aeris's bittersweet death had taken place five years before. Hojo motioned a man with raven black hair to come forward. He grabbed his staff and began hacking away at the ice-covered lake. After he had penetrated the icy surface Hojo stepped onto the ice and dropped a shiny blue marble-like ball into the freezing lake water.

"Sir its almost 12:00," Nott said barely audible to Vincent's ears. She had short brown hair, combed to the side in a low ponytail down her back. She was wearing a short black trench coat that stopped to her thighs. About 5 4' and weighing about 143 pounds, made up this petite woman. Her figure was full, and healthy, showing that she was somewhat into her body. All in all, Vincent thought she looked a little like Tifa, especially the way she spoke, and shrugged.

Hojo looked back at her and spoke gruesomely to the man with raven black hair, "Zack…Nott count."

Nott held her wrist up and looked at her watch speaking loudly, " 12...11...10...-"

Zack pulled out a box and typed the code number quickly onto the box, which opened suddenly to reveal a huge materia.

"5...4...," Nott continued counting. Unexpectedly a beam of light came forth from the moon and hit the God materia, making it shine brightly. The beam then shot from the God materia down to the life materia that Hojo had thrown into the icy depths of the ancient lake. For five seconds the lake shown brilliantly, the next everything was dark and wintry cold again.

Zack ran to the hole that he had previously made, and again he hacked away at the thick ice. Hojo put his hand on his shoulder and pulled him back, then kneeling down by the whole, he stuck his hand in, trying to reach for something…but what? Hojo stood up quickly and motioned Zack to keep on working at the ice.

Vincent leaned forward as his brows began to knit; his crimson eyes strained to see what was going on down below. Why were they just standing there? What was Hojo up to? He subsequently threw his body back unthinkingly as he saw Aeris's quivering body brake forth through the ice, gasping for breath. His heart skipped a beat on seeing her delicate body full of life once again... After all these years... 

Zack pulled her out carefully with Hojo's help. Nott came running over with an armful of blankets, wrapping them gently around Aeris's frozen slight body. Hojo picked up the confused and frightened girl and carried her to his black car, placing her within, as Vincent still watched sharply. Nott slid into the driver seat, slamming the door shut, waiting with annoyance as Zack was outside looking at the cold dead trees to see if anybody had been watching. His eyes suddenly jot up to Vincent's hiding place while he turned to sit down on the passenger's seat. They sat there for a few minutes, making Vincent feel uneasy. Had they seen him? The car screeched forward hurriedly, after the last door had finally been closed. The car quickly disappeared out of sight, by means of leaving the smell of smoldering tires running threw the air.

Vincent jumped down out of the tree and landed smoothly, without a sound, onto his feet. _Aeris…was that really she? _He started thinking to himself to whether or not tell anybody about what he had just seen, or not. He fought about it, with himself, for awhile until it came to him; not telling anyone was the best thing to do… 

**3 Months later**

A newly wedded couple, driving a stolen motorcycle, sped down the streets of Midgar searching for nothing but freedom from the laboratory and the experiments held by Hojo. Aeris held on to Rufus tightly as they desperately tried to escape from Nott and Zack; who together speedily chased these two young adults heatedly down the sectors of Midgar hoping to catch and return them to Hojo; their rightful "owner and master."

"Rufus they're catching up," Aeris said looking back at the shiny black car.

Rufus looked down at the gas monitor and noticed that the monitor was reading nearly empty. He, afterward looked into his rear view mirror and knew that it was no use, that Zack and Nott would catch up to them eventually, then they'd drag them back to Hojo's laboratory, so he could experiment and continue his project. Rufus put his hand down on Aeris's wrists that were fixed around his waist so tightly.

_What am I going to do? I can't let anyone bring Aerith back to that hellish place_. "…Aeris…what do I do!" Rufus yelled, wiping away the cold sweat from his furrowed brows.

Zack sped up and was now side-by-side to Rufus and Aeris. Aeris reluctantly looked to the left, at them, and noticed that Zack was pointing a gun at Rufus. "Rufus," she yelled in horror, "He has a gun." Rufus looked over at the deviousness of the black car as he felt Aeris's trembling grip tighten in panic. He looked over to the right trying to find a way to loose them, but it was no use, they were going too fast. 

He skid to a stop on noticing a couple of biker's ramping a wooden board twelve feet high. "Aeris hold on tight, I'm going to ramp that board."

Aeris looked up at the ramp in shock, shaking her head to release the falling tears of anxiety. "Oh . . .no. Please no. There has to be another way." 

Rufus looked back at the black vehicle rapidly drawing closer, and said, "We have no other choice, the other way is a dead end.

"No Rufus." Aeris screamed, as they approached the ramp.

Rufus ramped the board onto the nearby roof, and skid all the way to the other side before coming to a stop. He noticed that there were ramps on the roof across three of the sectors, and on the last there was a ramp leading down. He decided to take on the ramps, but he still respected Aeris's wishes. Slowly he sped down the ramps so that he wouldn't make her brake down in convulsions.

* * *

Rufus glided gently to a stop and got off his motorcycle to attend to Aerith's needs, "Aeris," Rufus said gently to the traumatized girl. "It's over. Are you okay?" 

"Urn…Please don't do that again."

"I promise, no more ramps."

"Rufus I feel…sick," she said pressing her hand against her stomach. "Can we just run the rest of the way?"

"Shah…Aeris I'm sorry," Rufus said nervously, jumping onto the bike. _Looks like they want to play with us again._

"Oh…no," Aeris said looking back at their adversary's car. Aeris gripped Rufus waist powerfully as he suddenly jerked the bike forward.

"Ah. Aeris, don't grab on so tightly."

"Sorry. I can't help it. It was a reflex. Go! Go!" Aeris screamed as the black car came closer. Rufus pressed the gas peddle and jerked forward accidentally this time making Aeris hurl forward like a rag doll. Then when he was in control once again, he sped effortlessly down sector seven with Zack and Nott still following like a shadow behind them.

_I'm sorry Aeris. I wish there was another way. _Rufus thought to himself, as he watched the flickering streetlights pass by swiftly. A sudden realization hit him hard as he looked down; the gas monitor was a meter away from reading zero. Any minute now the bike would give out, then Nott and Zack would catch up to them and bring them back to Hojo._ I can't let them take her, and I won't. She doesn't belong in a place like that. What do I…_his body felt fatigued suddenly as he tried to contemplate a way for Aeris to escape_… "_That's it," Rufus face jeered.

"That's what?"

"Okay…Aeris, the bike can't take much more."

"Oh… I thought something else was going wrong," she said, barely audible to his ears because of the roaring engine.

"No…that's not it…in a few minutes we will hit the main rode, and when we do…I'm going to throw you off."

"YOU'RE WHAT?" Aeris said in distress, her grip tightening. "No…Rufus no!" Her eyes swelled with tears, as fright had stolen her mind away from thinking clearly.

"Yes," Rufus yelled as he squinted from the blurry sight that the fog had caused him. "Do you want to die? Unless we do this, you are going to."

"No…what about you?" she sobbed.

"To hell with me. You are who I care about, not me."

"But…what if I get caught or I never see you again?"

"You're making this harder. I've already decided my fate, and yours. I'm throwing you off. Alright," he shouted, instantly feeling guilty.

"Yeah." she said whipping away her tears shamefully. "Here take my necklace… so that you will remember me." She pulled her necklace off and slid it underneath Rufus's arm. He took it and knotted it around his wrist, as his face softened at the touch of her pearly smooth skin. He looked in the rear view mirror so that he could see her face one last time, before they hit the main rode. Her tear-stricken face was looking up in extreme anxiety; her long light-brown hair flowed freely behind her in the tumultuous wind.

Was he actually going to throw her off…?

Would she escape if he did…?

What would he do next…?

Aeris's body trembled as these questions flooded into her head. Then the question that she feared most hit her…

Where would she go once he threw her off?

"Ready?" Rufus called out. 

Aeris's heart began to pound wildly as they finally hit the main rode. "Yes," she lied, "I'm ready." Then Rufus drove into the crowded streets of Midgar, trying to get as close as he could to the crowds of people, as he took hold of her hand. "Aeris, I'll be back for you…I promise," and with those final words, he grabbed her arm and flung her slender body off the motorcycle, onto a man, with the idea he would cushioning her fall.

_I hope she'll be O.K. _Rufus thought as he looked back at the black car, still following close behind. He sped up then suddenly turned the corner down sector six, the black car was still catching up. _They're so fast…_

Smoke filled the air as the motor finally gave way._ Not now. Please not now. Come on…_Rufus tried starting it up again, it was no use; the bike was dead weight now. He put the bike down and slowly turned around to face his rivals. Zack had gotten out and was now pointing a gun at Rufus, threatening him that if he were to move, he would be shot at. Nott had also gotten out and was looking at all the scratches that Rufus had made to her brand-new bike. Then she picked up a gas container from out of the trunk, and walked over to her bike then began to fill up the empty tank.

"Stop. Don't move," Zack demanded as Rufus inched closer. "You know, you made Hojo mad when he found out you were gone. He was even angrier when he found your little wife gone too. Tell me…did you actually think you could escape? Didn't Hojo tell you that the life materia he brought you back to life with had absorbed into you, and that it's also a homing device…So as long as your outside in the open; he knows exactly where you are at all times, and the same thing goes for Aeris…your wife**.**" Zack's smirking face pierced Rufus heart with resentment. "Honestly, did you think you and Aeris would have been able to escape with that, inside of you both?"

_No answer..._

"Tell me. Where is Aeris," Zack said harshly, showing that he had had enough fun.

Nott finished filling up the tank, then walked slowly over to Rufus, "Doesn't matter, your diminutive wife has a life materia in her heart too. And as long as that is in her, we will be able to find her, if she's out in the open. Hojo will be able to control her in her sleep. She will feel sharp pains pierce through her body, only when she disobeys Hojo, or when she gets reminded of him. So as long as that thing is in her she's hopeless…but there is hope for you. The only way you can take out the life materia is to cut it out. I'd love to cut it out for you, but I know that the far worst punishment for screwing up mine and Zack's day, would be to bring you back to Hojo's laboratory-" 

"Shut up… you witch," Rufus snarled, his eyes filled with tears of rage and passion. "Then you too, admit that his laboratory is a vindictive, merciless place to bring her and me."

Nott walked straight up to him, to where she was only five inches away from his trembling body. Pulling his chin up, she made eye contact with him. "Don't touch me," Rufus spat, smacking her unwanted hand away. Zack narrowed his eyes at Rufus's actions.

"You're not the one who should be so angry, you haven't spent half of your day looking for you. Might I also add, you're a real pain to follow. MY BIKE. Tedious JERK!" Nott screamed while producing a gun out of her short trench coat. "Let me thank you…" Nott whispered furiously, shooting him in the chest. Rufus eyes flashed open as he slumped over in shock. He began to breath heavily as sharp piercing pains filled his chest.

Zack jumped back as Nott stormed past him, making a mental note never to mess with her bike. Then he ran over to Rufus's quavering slouched figure, and helped him up to the car, "Come on buddy."

"No!" he whispered out in pain, "Ouch…No!"

Nott looked back and noticed that Zack actually felt sorry for the little guy. He then heaved Rufus into the car and turned around to face Nott, who was holding the keys to the black vehicle high above her head in the air. "Have a soft spot, do we?" Nott smirked cruelly down at Rufus, handing Zack the keys to.

"No. I just think that you were to rough with him. Hojo did say he wanted him back alive."

"He will still be alive. Okay. Whatever. Anyways. So you're going to take him back while I look for Aeris. Right?"

"Yeah." Zack said giving her a dark, mean look.

"What? I just had it waxed! Shut up Zack."

"I didn't say anything."

"You know what you did. Err! I'm going," Nott jumped up onto her bike and started up the engine. "See you at eleven-o-clock."

"Yeah. Nott don't screw up." Zack smiled and waved, as Nott sped off.

Zack turned around and glided onto the drivers seat. He then picked up the phone and dialed Hojo's lab number. "Hojo, we found Rufus…"

_"Good, what about the girl…"_

"She disappeared, but Nott went to go search for her…"

_"…"_

"Sir Rufus is not doing so well…Nott shot him. And he's shaking violently, plus he is bleeding really bad…"

_"Bring him to me quickly then…I'll have Rall fix him up. Until then make sure he's as warm as he can get, or he'll get hypothermia."_

"Yes sir." Zack clicked off his phone and threw it in the glove department. After that he started up the engine, and situated his extremely large trench coat comfortably on Rufus's cold pathetic body. "It'll be okay…He'll fix you up again…"_ My gosh. I'm actually being nice. Rall is wearing off on me…Hum…I wonder how fast this car can go. _Zack smiled as he revved up the engine.

* * *

Aeris smashed against a substantial man, somewhat cushioning her fall. She stood up quickly and cried out for her lover, "Rufus…no." She stood in deep meditation in her tumultuous thoughts for a few minutes, but was broke away instantly when she finally noticed that the man she had fallen on was staring straight at her.

"Miss, a-are you O.K.?" the puzzled man stammered.

She spun around and looked at the man in fright, saying, "I have to get away. I…I have to get away," she stammered silently audible to the man's ears as she looked for a place to hide.

The man walked up to her and grabbed her arms as he looked at her gentle feminine features in wonderment, "Aeris," he began, "Is…is that you?"

Aeris gasped in apprehension. How did he know her name? "Uh…I have to get away," she yelled, pounding on the man's chest. " No…oh let go!" Aerith looked over to the left and saw Nott and five other tall-armed figures, looming closer towards her: Hojo's men. "I have to get away," she cried, as she tore away from the man's grasp.

"Aeris, stop. What's wrong?" The man said, as he followed her down an abandoned alleyway. He grabbed her arms again, much tighter than before, and twisted her around so that she faced him.

"Let go," she cried, looking over to where Nott was. " She's coming for me. She's almost here. "Please, let me go!"

"Aeris, who is?" the mysterious man asked calmly. "Who?"

She stopped as she finally began to pull her wits together. Nott was only yards away from her. She looked up at the unknown man's face and asked desperately, as tears of fear swelled up in her beautiful pleading eyes; "please, will you help me? That woman, over there is chasing me." The man turned his head over at Aeris's pointing finger, in Nott's direction.

The man's eyes narrowed as he thought to himself._ ...That's same woman from the lake._ Vincent looked down at Aeris's tear-stricken eyes, and without warning he grabbed Aeris and forced her behind him. She tripped on the snow, twisting her ankle as she fell to her hands and knees. Vincent took out his gun, while Nott and the five evil pursuers approached him. 

"Have a new friend, do we Aeris? Better say some prayers for him, as he is about to die." Vincent jumped back as a bullet whizzed past him in the air. "Give me the girl, boy," Nott commanded.

Vincent shot down two of the tall, armed men, killing them on impacted. He then grabbed Aeris and threw her behind an old rusted car as he himself jumped up onto a balcony.

"So you want to play. Nice trick," Nott smiled. "You trying to show off?"

All of a sudden, two more men fell dead to the ground. Nott turned around, and just as she did, the last man in her party, which had been shooting at everything possible, fell dead._ Err…I knew they would be useless._ Nott thought to herself walking slowly behind a trashcan.

Aeris, who had fallen unconscious by being thrown against a brick wall, woke up and was looking straight at Vincent's concerned and grieving face.

"Are you okay?" He said, sitting her up, "I forgot you were a girl."

"Uh…I feel so sick," Aeris grabbed his arm as she suddenly twisted forward, throwing up the contents in her stomach.

_Oh…the poor woman, she's probably been thrown around all day._ Vincent picked her up and sat her down, gently against the brick wall. She looked up at his face and whispered audibly to him, "I feel better now." Aeris eyes flashed open as her face lit up in trepidation, "Where is Nott?"

"She's over there," Vincent said pointing over at Nott's peering face.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you that it was rude to point?" Nott smirked. "And didn't she ever tell you not to play with guns?" She stood up and walked out in the open. "Face me like a man, boy."

Vincent stood up and began to walk out, when he felt a hand tug at his pants, "Be careful, she likes to kick," Aeris began, "And she always aims for the chest." Vincent nodded his head in thanks, and then continued walking out to face Nott.

"Why are you working for Hojo; for money, or pleasure?" Vincent questioned demandingly.

"Why? It's not any concern of yours what I work for…but of you really want to know, I always work for pleasure"

Vincent's face twisted in disgust. Nott pointed her gun at Vincent, ready to shoot as he did the same. He commenced towards Nott, when two gunshots rang through the air, one, after another. Nott grabbed her right arm in pain as she yelled, "How did you do that?"_ He is better than I thought…_ Vincent had shot Nott's bullet right out of the air, making it backfire into her right arm. Again he did it, this time hitting her in the right hand. She screamed while she threw her gun to the ground wincing in pain.

Vincent picked up Nott's gun, and expertly took out all the bullets, then threw it down at her trembling feet.

_Oh, great._ Nott panicked._ He's too strong for me. How can anybody be so strong?_

Nott ran at Vincent and started madly kicking at him. At first she landed some kicks, but then Vincent studied her moves and started blocking them all. He stepped back in surprise, as she rapidly swirled around, trying to kick him anywhere she could. Her leg flew up, aiming for his face; but Vincent caught her leg with his arm. He twisted his arm around her leg and pulled her forward into the splits, as she fell to the ground. She stood back up quickly and ran forward once more kicking madly at Vincent, but still he blocked every move. "Stop doing that." She started to walk towards Aeris's direction, and stopped short as she lifted up her shoe to pull out a hidden dagger. She powerfully threw it at Vincent, but he'd moved swiftly out of the way: just as she had planned.

Vincent swirled around on hearing a soft cry from Aeris. His crimson eyes jotted back at Nott furiously as he paced quickly up to her, slamming her body against the wall. Nott choked in pain. He stuck the gun to her head as she automatically threw her hands up while freezing in fear at the sight of his golden claw.

_I've never been so scared before in my entire life,_ Nott started thinking,_ I wonder…is this what real fear is like? _Nott's eyes filled with tears of rage... She'd have to surrender; she had never before lost a battle, nor had she ever before surrendered, nor was she going to. "Get off me!" She yelled, squirming tremendously under Vincent's powerful grip.

"Tell me why Hojo wants her."

"I will not deceive my master."

"I didn't ask you to. I asked you what Hojo wanted with the girl."

"I wouldn't tell you anything, not even if you gave me all the money in the world," Nott growled viciously at him, like she was about to bite him. Vincent grabbed both of her wrists and stepped onto her feet, trying to hold them down.

"Ahh… Let go. GET OFF OF ME." Nott yelled, with cold sweat streaming down her face.

"Tell me what Hojo wants with the girl," Vincent said these words so calm and smoothly that Nott just couldn't stand it any more. She decided it was time to surrender and tell him everything that she knew: which was nothing.

Nott looked down in apprehension. "I'll tell you what I know. When I do; do you promise to let me go?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Just, no."

"Just, why?" Nott said through gritting teeth, as she looked intently at Vincent's face.

"What if you haven't anything to tell?"

"I do have something to tell you."

"What if you're lying?"

"I am…not lying," Nott lied, blowing away a strand of her hair, from off of her face.

"How do I know that?"

"It's called trust."

"You call it trust, I call it stupidity."

"That's because you are stupid."

" And you're naive."

"Err! SHUT UP!!!" Nott screamed angrily at the top of her lungs. "Oh…that felt good."

Vincent shook his head at Nott's frivolous actions. "No more playing around with me. Do you know what Hojo wants with this girl, or not?"

"That's my name, don't wear it out!" Vincent pressed her body harder against the wall. "Oow… If your trying to squeeze it out of me, it's not going to work."

"Tell me," Vincent said, starting to get angry,

"O.K. Alright. I'll tell you. Let me go after already," Nott said, with a hint of exhaustion in her voice. "Will you?"

"…Why would I?"

"Because you're a sweet, gifted, attractive, inane, charismatic, very fine-looking-"

"Why."

"Because, I guess your dad was also."

"You're a very inexplicable woman."

"The name's Nott…whew am I tired. He-h-eh he-he-Ha-ha-ha-HA-HA-HA!!!" Nott began to brake into giggles as tiredness overtook her fatigued body. 

Vincent looked to the side in disgust of her silly actions. "Stop it," he said, heightening the volume of his voice. "Tell me why Hojo wants her. Tell me." Vincent shook Nott's body side to side, trying to make her cut out the giggles. 

"You didn't say the magic word. Ha-ha-HA-HA-Ha!"

"PLEASE!" Vincent yelled, fuming mad. Nott instantly stopped giggling and looked seriously at Vincent; her eyes were so wide, she looked like an alien.

"O.K. Please don't yell in-"

"Tell me." Vincent's eyes began to glow fiery red, Nott started to tremble, her heart pounding against her chest.

"Alright. I don't know."

"Liar."

"I am not. I swear to you."

"How could you not know?"

"Hojo never told me." Nott grew angry again, at being accused of being a liar. "I don't lie... all the time."

"Nott's your name, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Nott, would you-!"

"No…"

"Please," Vincent began again. "Tell me the truth."

"I have been this whole time. Loosen your grip please." He loosened the extreme pressure in his grip, respecting her wishes.

Vincent closed his eyes in pain from an oncoming headache. "Stop… Please just tell me the truth."

"Alright. Hojo never told me about anything. I'm not lying. Maybe someday he'll tell me. Ugh…you still don't believe me, do you?"

"Would you, believe you?"

"…No…not really. You know I only get like this when I'm tired, and I'm tired, so please excuse my behavior." Nott began to sink down in Vincent's arms, falling asleep on the spot._ Why am I so tired, I guess I must have used all my energy on finding the little brats. How am I going to get away from this guy?_ Nott bit her lip in frustration. "She belongs to Hojo. Your stealing if you take her away."

"Hojo doesn't own her. He never did and he never will."

"He brought her back to life. Without Hojo doing that she wouldn't be here now."

"No. The materia brought her to life."

"Yes, that too. We brought her to life with a stolen soul from the past."

"What?"

"I'm saying that the soul we took out of the life stream was thirty years or older."

"You brought her to life with a stolen soul?"

"Yes."

"…"

"Something just dawned on me. I never told you that we brought her to life with a materia. I'm really tired, so I'm really slow at getting things. Anyways, you must have been the one that Zack had sensed in the trees that night."

"Yes, I was there."

"…You're good." Nott quickly, without warning, shot up and kissed him. Vincent fell back in alarm as Nott jotted forward and kicked him in the stomach with all her weight making him curl up in pain as he fell to the ground. Then she quickly walked over to his bent figure and threw him onto his back, in the freezing snow. She quickly thrust a knife up to his neck as she sat down on his chest. When his breathing slowed down, Nott said, rolling her head back, "Ewe…how the tables have turned." All of a sudden Vincent's legs shot up on Nott's shoulders. He violently forced her onto her back, while she screamed in surprise. Nott lay there breathlessly on the snow, as Vincent rose to his feet, with his gun pointing eagerly at her chest

"Tell me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you," Vincent spat in detestation.

"Because, some day…I might know Hojo's plans in relation to Aeris. You can beat it out of me when I do," Nott stated boldly, forcing a smile onto her face, "because I'll never tell you."

"No? Then I want you to tell Hojo that he will have to get the girl from me, himself."

"He won't go out in public because he's so ugly. He fed off of the life of small animals, which distorted his body." Vincent leaned forward, listening carefully. "He did this for about a year, until he was able to suck the life out of bigger and more powerful things. Now he can take over living forms."

"Like?"

"Humans, elephants, you, Aeris, me even, things like that. Uh…why am I even telling you this? I think you have those kind-of eyes that hypnotize people; then again I am so tiered…I could fall into a deep sleep right here and now. Such a sleep that if my dream guy were to come up to me and kiss me on the cheek and say, '_Nott, wake up now, and I'll marry you,_' I wouldn't wake. I would just keep on sleeping. Who knows, it probably already did happen, but I was asleep through it all…"

Vincent cocked his head to the side in annoyance, and spoke, "You need more than just sleep. You need some mental help."

Nott burst out laughing, as though it was the funniest thing she had ever heard. "Look who's talking? I bet people ran in horror every day at the sight of that _thing_," Nott said, referring to his claw.

Vincent gave her a look of vexation, "go tell Hojo what I said."

"And what was that?" Vincent had had enough. He used his patients to the max, and now that was it. He shot her in the shoulder blade, at just the right spot, making her whole arm go limp.

"Go." Vincent commanded.

Nott stood up and walked up to Vincent with a dagger that she had taken out of her other shoe. She ran at him, but again Vincent over-powered her, as he shoved her against the wall, furiously. He knew that when he had shot her, that she had no more energy to fight against his weakest moves. She winced as Vincent crushed her into the wall. He ripped the dagger out of her hand and threw it onto the ground, with his eyes on hers at all times. "I want you to," he said, speaking calmly, "Go tell Hojo, that if he wants the girl, he'll have to come for her himself."

Nott looked down at her lifeless right arm, as it swelled with unbearable pain. She started to moan softly, her eyes filling with tears of mental hurt and frustration. "You had a way better chance of winning than I ever could have in so many ways. You were stronger and you haven't spent you whole day -"

"Nott. It's over."

"I HATE YOU!!!' Nott screamed, spitting on Vincent's face. Vincent turned to the side, and wiped her spit off with her own shirt. He then grabbed her chin with his claw and brought her trembling face to his attention. He looked at her with fury, so much as she had never before seen in a man.

"Tell Hojo what I said," Vincent commanded, roughly thrusting her to the grown, forcing her onto all four. She got up quickly and jumped onto her motorcycle. "I will tell him. You'll regret it more than anything else in your whole entire life." As she drove off, those simple words still rang through her head; Nott, it's over, hurting her still even more.

Vincent watched to see if she had really left, then ran over to Aeris. She was half asleep, shivering to death on the snow-covered ground. She jerked awake suddenly, when Vincent asked how she felt. He looked down to see where Nott's dagger had landed when he asked Aeris, "Are you injured?"

"No. The dagger…" She said sleepily, "It just grazed past my shirt, cutting it." Aeris put her small hand to her lips as she yawned delicately.

Vincent sympathetically helped Aeris to her feet, when she gasped out in fright. She had never before seen a claw so hideous looking. Vincent ignored her and still helped her up, as Aeris was trying to get as far away from "the thing" as possible. He finally helped her to her feet when all of a sudden she screamed out in unexpected pain, grabbing onto Vincent's clawed arm. As she slid off his claw she fell to the ground crying out, "My ankle. OH…It hurts."

Vincent knelt down to look at it, noticing that it was twisted badly. "Come on. I'll carry you." He carefully picked her up. As she was lifted, she wrapped her arms around his neck and let her body lay in total comfort. He walked a couple of feet but stopped on feeling a puddle of sweat roll down his shoulder at the arm. He looked down at his shoulder, as he was just about to wipe off the sweat.

Aeris eyes opened wide in alarm, "You're bleeding!"

_But how? Nott never cut me. _Vincent thought to himself as he put Aerith down on her feet, ripping away his shirt.

Aeris looked up at Vincent's puzzled gaze, saying, "Where's your wound?" She put her hands up to tear away more of his shirt, her eyes not leaving his face. Vincent suddenly snatched her wrist away and pulled it up toward the light to examine. Her whole arm was drenched in blood! Aeris froze at the sight of her horrible wound.

"What did you do?" He asked sensitively, with a hint of amazement.

"I…don't know!" she said, dazed at the sight of so much of her blood flowing down her arm.

Vincent thought hard to himself when finally it came to him. When Aeris had felt the pain in her ankle, she had slid down his claw, probably cutting herself on accident. The pain had been so great and terrible in her ankle that she hadn't felt her wrist slit open like that.

Vincent looked down at her drowsy eyes and felt compassion for her. He tore his shirt off, which left his undershirt on only to cover him in the cold wintry weather, and then wrapped it gently around Aeris's slender wrist. She just stood there like an icicle, as she watched him work at her wrist. After he had finished, he helped her up to her feet once again; she just leaned against his chest, in a hugging fashion.

"Sir," she began, "Thank you for protecting me." 

"My name is Vincent. Do you not remember me Aeris?"

"No. How is it…that you know me; but I don't know you?"

"I don't know. Maybe it will all come back to you over time."

"Vincent…Everything is spinning around me. Uh…I feel so sick…Uh…" She suddenly slid down his chest, as everything around her became blurry; then dark…

****

-End Chapter 1-

Review if you like it. Hey, that makes sense now doesn't it? Ha-ha-ha. 

Have a nice day, see ya in the next chapter... hopefully...

**Next:**

Chapter 2: Old Friends!

Anybody that wants to post my fic on their web site. Just ask. But you have to ask... please. Thank you.

**A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR: **Please do not copy my ideas; I have worked months trying to think them up. Feel free to write a fan fiction off of mine, but you can't use my ideas for your future book, or get it copy written to your name… If that is what you are going to do, please discontinue reading my fic. I respect people's property, and I would appreciate it if you would respect my ideas. I do admit I didn't think of all these ideas by myself, but I would never have somebody else's ideas copy written to me. So I hope you enjoy my fan fiction. Please review. I LOVE REVIEWS, only nice ones though. That's what helps me to write. But if you do have something unkind to say, or you just feel like flaming... Go ahead and email me... at: impractically_me@happyhardcore.dj Put the subject as... FLAMING! So that I can erase it when I see it, so that I won't read what you no lives have to say. Because people that actually have lives, don't waste their time flaming. You Flamers only flame because you feel bad that you don't have a life. So I'll give you the opportunity to flame my story. Go ahead and take the time that you obviously have, (because peoples with lives don't flame, they just tell me what I need to fix, constructive criticism.) And email me at the above address. Thank you and have a great day, especially you no lives out there! See ya!

I'm going to put this note up on every chapter. I really want people to read it... as many times as they have the chance. I truly don't want my ideas stolen... So please, please don't steal them. Thank you!


	2. Old Friends!

Chapter 2: Old Friends!

Aeris woke up covered in a huge bundle of blankets. She sat up; combing her fingers threw her hair as she searched around for her clothes. Her dress was completely torn in half! She slid her tattered dress's shirt over her under shirt, and then her skirt type dress over her under shorts. She sat down on the soft couch searching for her bow as she began to rapidly braid her long honey brown hair; ending it with a waving knot. Have finished that, she stood up feeling her stomach growl and decided to look for something to eat. Not knowing her way around the house frightened her, so naturally she didn't want to run into a room that was forbidden, but she thought that the best thing to do was to look into the rooms' closes to her.

_Where am I_, Aeris thought calmly to herself, making an effort not to panic. _Where is that man who saved me? Huh…_Aeris reached for the kitchen's door handle, but withdrew suddenly on seeing her hand covered completely in bandages,_ MY WRIST! I cut it … on that man's claw. _She fingered her cast as she tried to find an opening so that she could see her wrist, which started throbbing terribly from her probing at it.

Aeris opened the kitchen door cautiously, making sure not to disturb anyone who may be beyond the door. When she found the coast clear, she thought it best to enter and make herself acquainted with this part of the of the house. She looked down at a little wooden dining table, which had a glass cup full of water with melted ice in it, and a little plate with a simply made sandwich on it. Her mouth began to water as her stomach cried out for food once again and the sight of it wasn't making things any better. She wasn't sure if the sandwich was made for her or not but a piece of paper lying near the plate caught her eye.  She reached out with her uninjured hand and retrieved the small not from here it was propped up against the plate, which had her name scribbled delicately on it the folded side. Slowly she picked up the glass of water, and subsequently slid her index finger around the tip of the glass, making a beautiful angelic note flow through the air. She then picked up the cheese and meat made sandwich and began to nibble slowly on it as she kept wide forest green eyes open to any movements possible. As she looked around herself, at all the kitchen appliances, her eyes cut short on a huge brown box that was brand new, so it seemed with a little bit of a padding on the insides. 

Unexpectedly, the door flashed opened and Vincent came in carrying an old broken, moldy box filled to the top with guns. He carelessly threw it onto the counter, making a huge thudding noise. Aerith flew up out of her seat at the loud noise and accidentally dropped her sandwich as her eyes stared hard, wide in alarm.

Vincent paused from his work and looked at her apologetically, then picked up a towel as he pulled a gun out of the molded white box. He professionally cleaned it, without thinking, then placing it gently into the new brown box, he picked up another gun and started the cleaning process all over again. "How are you feeling?" Vincent said, observing her fatigued body quietly.

"…Tired."

"Who was that women chasing you?"

"Nott. Professor Hojo's science project…she doesn't know it though." 

"She doesn't know what?"

"That she is a project that Hojo has been working on. I found out the day I left. I heard Zack telling..." Aeris looked down shyly feeling stupid because she thought she had said too much to fast.

Vincent asked restfully, "How did you figure out a way to escape from Hojo's lab."

"Umm…Hojo has a nice man working for him. He unlocked my cell for me, then gave me the keys to every locked door. I took it from there, helping Rufus to es-"

"Rufus Shinra?" Vincent asked, interrupting her sentence, "How is he alive?"

"Don't you know how he died?"

"Yes. An explosion."

"…No!"  Aeris said a bit baffled at his answer.

"How, then?" Vincent squinted at Aerith in confusion.

"Hojo dragged him out of the office, he was barely alive, then Hojo shot and killed Rufus and stored him away." Vincent's brows began to knit, confused at Aeris's story of Rufus's "real" death.

"What!? Why?"

"I don't know why he did that, or why he wants him."

"Where did he put the body?"

"In water, because water is life. Hojo said to me that water was eighty-ninety percent of our body. Hojo brought Rufus back to life later when he was strong enough to control his own body."

"Where was Hojo until then?"

"I'm not exactly sure, I just heard Nott and Rall talking about how he fed on living forms for a year, about sixteen to twenty feet under ground in some lab. I've been to the lab a couple of times. He would bring me to it, once in a while."

"Who was the man that helped you escape?"

"Rall. Nott and Zack despised him because he hated Hojo and his projects."

"Why does he work for him?"

"Nott is his girlfriend. Hojo said that he would release her if Rall would work for him. Hojo wants Rall to work for him because he is an engineer, and a doctor. He could help him with all the electronic things, and bandage us up."

"Who is Zack?'"

"Zack is just a man who works for money. He also has experience in the medical field. Hojo gives us to Zack, for him to fix up, after Hojo's done with us. Sometimes he would cut us accidentally, or sometimes he give us to Rall if we were really wounded..."

"What does Hojo want with you?"

"I don't know."

"Why?"

"Umm…Hojo never really talked to me. He just…did experiments on me." She looked down to the side, as deep sorrow filled in her eyes. "…Rufus…"

"What does Rufus have to do with you?"

"What, I don't understand?"

"Why do you call out his name. You did it yesterday also."

"Oh…He has just been through so much. Hojo had him for four years before he got me. We married…"

"Married?" Vincent was both surprised and confused.

"It was a request I had."

"Why?"

"…Because I was planning a way to escape at that point, but everything went wrong. I ended up getting punished by Hojo in the end; lashings. It didn't hurt though. He had already done so much to me, that I have become immune to some pains."

"What was your request?' Vincent said, as he placed another washed gun into the brown box.

"It was for Hojo to give me a proper wedding with Rufus, then I promised to cooperate in his plan. That I'd do what he said, when he said what he said."

"Why with Rufus?" 

"I was going to try to help Rufus escape also."

"You lied to Hojo then. You ran away."

"Yes…but part of my request was to have a proper wedding, in which he never gave me."

Vincent nodded his head in understanding, and then spoke again on a different subject. "The soul he gave you?"

"Yes?"

"Why didn't he just bring you to life with your own soul?"

"Hojo had to bring my body to life first before my soul could enter it. Since it is alive now, the soul I was brought to life with is living within me, but not as strongly as my own soul is. The soul doesn't know my body as well as my own soul does. So when my soul entered, it shoved the other soul to the side. At times the soul will control my body, without me wishing so. The materia with the soul, that's not mine it has a life power in it. That's how I am living."

"And the materia in your heart?"

"That's where the soul lives, keeping me alive. It is also a homing device."

"How do you know that?"

"I read something that Hojo had on his desk before he gave me to Rall…"

"Is that all it is?"

"I'm not sure. I know though, that Zack and Nott helped make that materia."

"So what is the project that Hojo is doing on Nott?"

"He grabbed some girl off the street, which happened to be Rall's girlfriend, Nott, and tested on her to see if all the science things would work when he went to use them on me."

"Why won't Rall turn against Hojo, and run off with Nott?"

"Hojo has complete control over her. He can kill her within a heartbeat."

"Why can't Rall disconnect Hojo's mind power from Nott?"

"He is trying to figure out a way. Her real name is Jewel: she is a nurse and a waitress here in this town. She was such a sweet lady before she was mutated. I met her."

Vincent's face twisted in revulsion. He picked up the brown box, leaving the room when a thought hit him, "Why is it that you can't remember me, if you're reunited with your soul?"

"I…don't really know. I think the life materia that Hojo brought me to life with, is keeping this knowledge from me." After that was said, Vincent left the room.

* * *

Aeris backed into a counter as she stepped back in distress. On looking back she noticed a stack of pictures lying on the counter. She picked them up and started examining them. One looked a lot like Vincent, but younger and he was actually in a suit. He had shorter hair, and instead of those piercing red eyes, he had big ocean blue eyes. She put it down, subsequently picking up another picture that had Tifa and Cloud hugging side-by-side, and it was dated the current year. After looking at it for five minutes she put it down as she picked up one more picture.

This picture astonished her. She didn't expect to see herself somewhere, where she had never been. She slid her fingers down the picture, pausing on Cloud. _Who is this man…I feel like I should know him very well. And her… Is that really me? _Aeris looked at herself again, and noticed that in this picture that she had darker hair and it was shorter and that she was wearing the exact same dress that she had been now, except hers was cut in half, which frightened her somewhat._ That dress…but how can she be me?_

Suddenly Vincent came through the kitchen doors holding her hair tie that she had been searching for. He went up to her and put his hand out for her to take it. She looked down at his hand throwing the picture back on the counter while she hesitantly grabbed the bright pink bow. Vincent grabbed a book off the dining table, as Aeris professionally stuck her hair up in a messy braid. He was about to walk out when Aeris called out his name, "Vincent."

"Hmm?" He asked turning around to face her.

"My wrist is throbbing, and it's hurting me. Can I have an ice pack…please?"

Vincent opened a drawer and pulled out a bag, then filled it with ice. As he was wrapping the bag in paper towels, Aerith asked, "Is my wrist going to be okay?"

He looked down at her, handing her the ice bag, and said, "I don't know. If it gets worse I'm going to take you to see a doctor."

"Oh…"

Vincent turned to leave, and was just about to walk out of the kitchen, but stopped short on hearing Aeris's silvery voice again. "Vincent. Since you asked me so many questions…I want to ask you some of my own questions. Was I evil when I was me?"

"No."

"Were you evil?"

"Yes."

Aeris backed up a bit on hearing that answer, her heart began to pound wildly. "Are you now?"

"…Not any more." Vincent looked at her, before he attempted to leave incase she had any more questions.

"Vincent…How did you get that…claw on your left arm?"

"Huh…Aeris?" The raven-haired man sighed.  "I got this claw from Hojo." Aeris's eyes amplified at this answer. Vincent smirked mockingly, but still trying not to be "mean" or offensive.

"Were you once under Hojo?" Worry clouded her face as she asked this question, afraid to hear the answer, "Did you use to work for him?"

"Yes. When I was a lot younger, I used to work for President Shinra, so at times I would work for Hojo; protecting his projects and scientists," Vincent replied.

"How did you come to living here?"

"I killed Hojo and became an ex-Turk."

"Oh!" Aeris said looking down at her feet.

"Any more questions?"

"No…that's all." On hearing that, Vincent walked out to go sit down in the living room to read his book.

Aeris turned to pick up the picture once again to examine it, but noticed that the pictures had writing on the backs. From the words on the backs, she learned what all the names were of all the people in the picture. She learned Tifa's, Barret, Cloud's, Yuffie's, Red XIII's, Cid's, Cait Sith's, Reeve's, and the three Turks; Elena, Rude, and, Reno. She picked up the picture of her and Cloud and flipped it over to read the back, which is written down below…

Aeris and Cloud on a Date, at the Golden Saucer

Title

"ON A DATE"

_Cloud and Me… Why can't I remember? _Aeris jumped, when unpredictably the doorbell rang. She walked into the living room to peek at who it was. Tifa and Cloud came in; Tifa instantaneously hugged Vincent at sight as he put one arm around her. They all started talking while Aeris inched forward to try to hear what was being said while at the same time still not wanting to be noticed. She stopped when she saw Vincent cocking his head over in her direction, "She's really confused right now. Don't bring up anything that might remind her of Hojo."

"Yes, sir." Cloud beamed seriously.

"Where is she?" Tifa's heart began to pound, along with Cloud's. 

Was she really alive?

Vincent looked over at Aeris as Tifa's body followed his eyes. Tifa walked slowly up to her, her hands to her lips in disbelief. Cloud stood in agitation as Vincent quickly shut and locked the door.

Aeris instantly recognized Tifa from the picture, which she had seen of her. Without warning, Tifa ran forward as both tears of joy and astonishment flowed from her dark chocolate brown eyes. She hugged her tightly, saying softly, "Oh my gosh. I missed you so much!" She chocked on a sob, than stood back, whipping a tear away from her silky cheek.

Vincent walked out of the room, up to his room as it was now Clouds turn. Aeris looked up at Vincent desperately, "Vincent," she cried in apprehension.

Cloud walked up to Aeris and made eye contact with her. "Aeris," he said putting his hand up to his head, "You're really alive!" Tifa stood there silently, as Cloud conversed emotionally with Aeris.

She had an extremely puzzled look, creep over her face. "Cloud?" She said, remember him from his picture also.

Cloud's forehead wrinkled up in trepidation, "What?!"

"Is that you?" Aeris asked.

Clouds light blue eyes were on Aeris, so wide. He looked over at Tifa, who exchanged wondering glances back at him.

"Aeris?" Tifa began asking, with her words piercing through Aeris's mind. "Do you not know who we are?"

"No."

"Say WHAT?!!!' Aeris jumped as Cloud unexpectedly barked out in confusion. He couldn't believe his own ears, nor would he. How could she not remember him? Tifa shot a warning glance at him, reminding him that Aerith was probably already frightened enough and that he was probably frightening her even more. "You don't remember who we are?" he asked softly, trying not to make her so uptight.

"No. I don't remember anyone…or anything for that matter."

"Oh! That's horrible." Tifa frowned.

"Wait!" Cloud said, as he pulled a cure materia out of his coat's pocket. "Do you know what this is?"

"No. What is it?" 

"You don't know what this is? You don't remember using this?" Cloud said in shock.

Tifa walked up to Cloud and put her hand on his shoulder, leaning closer to whisper in his ear, "Remember what Vincent said. Try not to remind her of war or anything, especially Hojo."

"Yeah, okay." He whispered back apologetically.

"So Aeris," Tifa smiled, "How did you know our names?"

"Pictures. The ones on the counter, in the kitchen."

"Huh…Oh I left those there," Cloud said, scratching the back of his head nervously.

"Yes. There was one of you and me sitting on a seat of some sort. At the Golden Saucer, I think it was."

"Yeah? That was a night to remember!"

Tifa began to look around as something suddenly caught her eyes, "Oh my…!" Tifa gasped, "Aeris, your clothes."

"Yes, I know. I don't have anything else to change into." She said as she pulled at her skirt/dress. "My dress is cut in half."

Cloud grinned, shaking his head, "Sounds like Vincent. Probably couldn't get the buttons-unbuttoned." He went up to Tifa, laughing on her shoulder, as Tifa smiled and shook her head.

"No. Hojo was the man who did this."

"OH, you poor girl. I'm so sorry to hear that! I'll bring you a pair of my clothes tomorrow. Does that sound good?" Tifa said, straitening up.

"Yeah I'll bring some more pictures over. Maybe that will help to bring back your memory," Cloud added.

"Okay," Aeris smiled shyly, still confused by a lot of things.

"I have to go home now. Cloud's going to help me close up my bed-and-breakfast. So I... we'll see you tomorrow, okay Aeris?" Tifa said, hugging her once again.

Cloud grabbed Tifa's coat and slid it onto her small body, than hugged her from behind. Tifa gasped in surprise, laughing out, "Uh…Cloud!!! Come on, stop."

"Hmm…I'm driving."

"Please, tell Vincent we left," Tifa smiled, then waved at Aeris as she walked out the door. "See you tomorrow. Bye!"

Cloud smiled up at her, waved then said sweetly, "Bye Aeris. See tomorrow." He shut the door as all became silent.

Vincent came down the stairs a couple of minutes latter, and looked at her aching face, "What's wrong?"

"I have a headache, and my wrist still hurts."

"Why does your head ache?"

"I did not know who those people were. Why did you leave me Vincent?" 

Ignoring her question, he said, "Those two people were your best…friends, when you existed. They still are. Couldn't you see the concerned looks on their faces?"

"Are they married?"

"They're just going out."

"That lady was very beautiful. They are not living together, are they?"

"No! They aren't like that, they're to famous."

"What does famous have to do with it?"

"Cloud doesn't want people to know they're going out."

"Why?"

"To protect Tifa. Also to make sure that Tifa will find a man better than him."

"Oh."

"Your bedroom is ready. Are you hungry?"

"No. Vincent? Are they my enemy?"

"No!" Vincent looked at her face, and saw a tint of sadness on it. "Your bed is upstairs to the left. Do you need anything else?"

"Where will you sleep?"

"Out here."

"Alright." She walked up to her room and looked around herself. Everything was so mysterious, just like Vincent. She walked over to the window and looked out. She could see the main rode from their, and all the busy people. She pulled down the curtains, and then shut the door. She than laid down on the soft cushioned bed, pulled the covers over her body as she closed her eyes gently.

_They were such sweet people…I wish I could remember them._ She thought about Cloud and Tifa, until she was finally lost to her surroundings, as she fell finally into a deep powerful health-giving sleep.

****

Have a great day, everybody! Hope you liked it! Bye!!!

Next: Chapter 3: Memories!

Anybody that wants to post my fics on their web site, just ask. But you have to ask... please. Thank you.

**A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR: **Please do not copy my ideas, I have worked months trying to think them up. Feel free to write a fan fic off of mine, but you can't use my ideas for your future book, or get it copy written to your name.. If that is what you are going to do, please discontinue reading my fic. I respect people's property, I would appreciate it if you would respect my ideas. I do admit I didn't think of all these ideas by myself, but I would never have somebody else's ideas copy written to me. So I hope you enjoy my fan fic. Please review. I LOVE REVIEWS, only nice ones though. That's what helps me to write. But if you do have something unkind to say, or you just feel like flaming... Go ahead and email me... at: impractically_me@happyhardcore.dj Put the subject as... FLAMING! So that I can erase it when I see it, so that I won't read what you no lives have to say. Because people that actually have lives, don't waste their time flaming. You Flamers only flame because you feel bad that you don't have a life. So I'll give you the opportunity to flame my story. Go ahead and take the time that you obviously have, (because peoples with lives don't flame, they just tell me what I need to fix, constructive criticism.) And email me at the above address. Thank you and have a great day, especially you no lives out there! See ya!

I'm going to put this note up on every chapter. I really want people to read it... as many times as they have the chance. I truly don't want my ideas stolen... So please. Please don't steal them. Thank you!


	3. Memories!

Chapter 3: Memories!

Tifa and Cloud arrived at Vincent's apartment shortly after breakfast with clothes and pictures for Vincent's houseguest. Aeris was told to take a shower from Vincent, by Tifa, in which she did.

"Here," Tifa spoke with much exhaust, from the loss of much sleep as she held clothes out to Aeris. Last night, she and Cloud had spent, trying to figure out what was going on with Aeris's return. Aeris hung her towel on the rack then shyly grabbed the clothes out of Tifa's outstretched hand. 

"Put these clothes on while I try to find a hair tie," Tifa instructed turning away from Aeris.  Aeris slid on a white shirt and a short jean skirt. She reached down to her toes and put the socks and shoes on that Tifa had brought her. Tifa pulled out a pink bow from the bathroom drawer, which in fact was the same bow Aeris had been wearing the day before. "Is this okay?" Tifa asked showing her the bright pink bow.

"Sure."

"Wow! You look great in that outfit, now all we have to do is your hair." Tifa smiled as she walked over to the bathroom door to let cloud in, "Cloud, she's done taking a shower, and you can come in now."

"Huh? Coming."

"Oh!" Tifa smiled to herself as she reached for her brush and scissors, "He's such a glutton sometimes, and I can't help to love him for it."

"Are, um...you two going out with each other?" Aeris asked shyly.

"Yes."

"...For how long, now?"

"Four years or so," Tifa answered as she brushed out Aerith's wet silky hair. "Wow. You have really thick hair."

"Four years? And you haven't even married?"

Cloud came in at just the right time for Tifa. She really didn't want to answer the question that everybody was asking. Cloud was holding a large stack of pictures that had been stuff into a too small of box, making so the lid popped off every single time something bumped it. "Wow you look bea-great!" He stopped in the middle of saying beautiful in fear of upsetting Tifa, AND he was also to embarrassing to _admit_ the truth.

Aeris blushed and turned away slowly as she softly spoke out, "Thanks."

"Yeah, you really look great," Tifa encouraged her, cutting her hair into soft layers.

"Thank you Tifa," Cloud said, laughing lightly after his comment. "You do too."

Tifa made a clicking sound with the back of her tongue, "Cloud, you silly. I was taking to Aeris." Tifa reached back and kissed Cloud, then said, "You are gorgeous too."

"Hah, hah. I knew it," Cloud said triumphantly.

"Oh!!! Cloud." Tifa smiled, whacking him with the back of the brush, "You're so onto yourself."

"Whatever gave you that idea? I can't help that I'm just so gosh-darn sexy. Hey. I was just born with great hair, muscles, nice blue eyes, and brains. Everything you've ever wanted but weren't lucky enough to receive."

"Oh!" Tifa said in disbelief, "Cloud! You're definitely in for it this time."

_Cloud, you sound simple minded, when you're in love_, Vincent thought to himself, as he listened to their conversation. He sat in the living room quietly while reading a large cover bound book, to himself

"No, I was just joking Tifa. You're the second most beautiful thing to ever grace my presence."

"And what my I ask was the first?" Tifa eyed him angrily.

"Me of course. Geeze. I thought you'd already have that down."

"Oh my gosh Cloud. You are so terrible."

The blonde laughed.  "I was just kidding. Don't take anything personal. Anyways. Aeris, do you remember this picture?" Cloud asked, handing her the picture.

"No." Aeris smiled shacking her head.

"OK I only have about five pictures left out of thirty, and you don't remember anything? That's just jacked."

"Aeris," Tifa said, cutting off another chunk of her hair, "I...am...just about...there I'm done." Tifa handed her all the hair she had cut off as Aerith looked into the mirror at her new reflection. Her hair was layered so beautifully, she didn't even look at all like what she did yesterday. Tifa grabbed her hair and quickly threw it up into a ponytail, as Cloud continued with the pictures.

* * *

"How could you let her get away?!!!" Hojo yelled out at Nott savagely.

"Sir, there was a man there. I... He was too strong for me."

"NO EXCUSES!!! You should have fulfilled this mission easily."

"He was too strong for me to handle," Nott protested as memory of her fight with crimson-eyed man came to mind.

"Where was Zack all this time?"  Hojo began to pace the floor of his lab.

"Bringing Rufus here."

"I would have thought it to be more of a challenge to retrieve Rufus then Aeris. What is wrong with you?"

"Sir, if you would just listen. This man knew you," Nott tried to explain.

"Come on. Speak up. Who was this man?" Hojo's face twisted with rage. "No matter who the person was, you should have defeated him!"

Nott ignored his yelling tantrum and began to calmly describe the mysterious mans features. "He had long black hair, red eyes, a claw to-"

"Claw?!!!" Hojo's face went flat suddenly and his dark eyes wide.

"Yes, a claw made of metal."

Hojo broke into a fit of laughter as he chocked on his tongues. "Vincent? What a coincidence. Did you say he was protecting Aeris?"

"Yes, sir."

Unexpectedly Hojo hurled forward, howling madly with laughter at the news of Vincent actually protecting a girl of no importance to him...but she was of importance to Vincent, much more than he himself could ever know. Hojo grabbed his side as he slouched over, leaning against the testing table. "Humph...juphhehhehacha...ack... Forget about the man for now. Try to avoid him, but make sure you get the girl. If I do not have her, there would be no point to this project. Do you understand me? We would have to start this project all over again, and if that were to happen, I'd put you through the worst torture inventible. Just don't screw up your mission again, Nott."

"Why can't you get another girl?"

Hojo stopped dead in his tracks. "Were you not listening to me? She is the only Creta that exist, a goddess, and a warrior, smart, beautiful, strong enough to undergo my testing, everything you're not. If I put you through all the testing that I put her through, you'd die in the first week. No real human can survive my testing. Id' make a clone of her if I had to, but there isn't a point to that if the real "thing" is wondering around, NOW IS THERE?" Hojo yelled, spitting on Nott's' face, furiously. "Go! Take Rall with you. He'll be with you in a moment."

"Okay. Come on Rall lets go."

_Hum... I think she's weakening; besides she was just a test subject. I need to get some real men to fight for me. _Hojo thought to himself. _I wonder if those Ex-Turks would be up for that kind of a job. Rall is too nice a guy. Nott's only human. Zack...no, he's good. Rufus is such a pain._ Hojo looked over at Rufus with a wicked smirk painted across his face. Rufus sat silently on the testing table watching Hojo make his every move. "Zack," Hojo began, walking close up to Rufus. Rufus turned away sadly as Hojo put a hand on his leg. "Hold Rufus down." Zack walked over to Rufus and grabbed him, though Rufus didn't make any attempt to leave. He sat there calmly as Hojo went on with his so-called testing.

Hojo picked up a needle and filled it with burbling liquid, than inserted it into Rufus's arm. He then picked up a thick long blue liquid filled needle, as he grabbed Rufus's chin and twisted his head back. Rufus squinted in pain, while Hojo inserted the needle into his jugular vein (the main vein in his neck). Rufus sight became hazy as his body became lethargically limp. He lay back against Zack, sleepily while Hojo grabbed his arm. "The pain won't be as great, once I get Professor Gast's thinking into my system." He plucked out the I.V. from Rufus's wrist, than wrapped a thick swab of bandages around his bleeding wound.

"Ahh...stop." Rufus whispered softly. Suddenly his snapped and jerked forward smacking the glasses off of Hojo. Hojo began to blink frantically, as the room became seemingly blurry. He bent down and picked up his glasses placing them back onto his face as he looked at him silently in rage.

Hojo ripped the electronic connection from off of Rufus's frail body, shouting, "Zack, take him back to the basement. I'll deal with you later kid. Until then, I'm going to contemplate a way in my head to get your little wife back. GO!!!" Hojo snarled shortly. Turning around, he plodded out of sight as he laughed mockingly back at Rufus. "Then we can finish our project, as I turn her into my guinea pig, so to speak! Ahhahahah!!!!!!" His laugh was cut short by the doors of the study that closed behind him. 

Rufus hopped off the table and picked up his jacket, subsequently putting it on. Zack put his hand on Rufus's back as he roughly escorted him back to his basement with much force. When they made it down to the basement floor, Zack slowed down and stopped pushing. "You know, you shouldn't hit Hojo like that. He might end up killing you." Rufus looked away sadly. "By the way, are you alright kid?"

"Why did you bring me back here?"

"I did it for Hojo."

"Why? What's the point?"

"I work for money."

"Selfish, and heartless reasons."

"I have my reasons, none of which you would ever understand." Zack opened one of the doors in the basement and shoved Rufus in onto the cold ground. He sat up, back against the wall as he put his head down and hugged his knees. "Why can't you just leave me alone?" Rufus's voice was muffled and hard to hear. "I want to be left alone with Aeris."

"I wouldn't blame you. She is beautiful."

"Leave us alone."

"As long as Hojo's alive, you will always be hunted and tortured, and I can't do a thing about it. I know you wanted to be left alone; left alone to die, left alone to cry, left alone like your father left you alone. I worked under the President, when Palmer was alive. I know the story of how your father never had anything to do with you. Some day your pain will be gone. When Hojo finishes this project, you'll be safe."

"If he finishes this project," Rufus corrected.

"I'll see what I can do, but remember I work for him. Here," Zack said, pulling on item out of his white lab coat. "Have a sugar free sucker. They're always passing these out at the hospital." 

Rufus looked up and took the five lollypops from Zack's hands. He squinted his eyes mysteriously as Zack rubbed his fingers through his hair. Rufus pushed his hand away and began to speak, "What are you doing working here? You're too nice to be working for someone so heartless and cruel. He never has merci on me, but I've noticed that you do. And Nott, she cries sometimes when Hojo yells at her, which reminds me of how human she really is. Why do you work here Zack?"

"Uh. Yeah. I told you; money."

"But even a job like this is to terrible of a job for you to be working for."

"MY BUSINESS, it's my business. Please, will you stay out of it and leave me alone."

"Now you're getting my point. How do you like it when people rag on you twenty-four-seven, and never stop?"

Zack became speechless. He looked away solemnly then turned to leave. "Kid, if you think I'm bad, or Nott's bad, ... just wait. Hojo is going to get new men in. Ex-Turks. The biggest jerks ever to live on earth." With that said, Zack closed the door and left Rufus into total darkness, all alone.

* * *

"Aeris," Tifa began, "Have you ever been on a date?"

"Yes. Well actually I'm married."

Cloud looked up suddenly in surprise, Tifa exchanged wondering glances back at him, "Who?"

"Rufus...Rufus Shinra," Aeris spoke this name respectfully, in yet sadly at the same time.

Clouds icy-blue eyes widened, as he gaped down at Aeris, "WHAT!?!? The president Rufus Shinra?"

"Um...president? Yes, I think so."

"Really?" Tifa smirked, "So how is it like being married to a guy like that?"

"I don't know really. I married him yesterday."

"Yesterday?" Cloud repeated.

"Uh-huh." Aeris said as Tifa picked up a pretty necklace and gently placed it on her delicate shoulder blades. "But he's gone now," Aeris continued sadly, making herself depressed. "I don't think I'll ever see him again."

"Sure you will. Okay," Cloud beamed, "That's enough on that subject. Let's find away to clear your mind." He grabbed her hand and looked into her eyes. "You are so beautiful!?" It confused Aeris when he said this. He said it like a question, and like a fact and opinion all at the same time.

"Thanks." She replied, in the same manner of voice.

"Hey!!!" Aeris froze at Clouds loud and alarming words. "Tifa. Take the lovely lady on a walk around the town. Show her the sights. Let her meet friends. Let her have a chance to take her mind off of things."

"Yeah. Sounds great," Tifa smiled. Cloud let go of Aeris's smooth skinned hands and then placed both of his hands on the side of Tifa's jaw. Tifa mechanically grabbed onto both of Clouds wrists. "Cloud," She laughed as he kissed away at her lips. "No. Stop. Latter."

"Yeah! So, Aeris what is to be said about taking a nice brisk walk around the city with my woman?"

"Sure. Sounds nice."

Tifa broke away from Clouds frivolous actions as she tugged on Aeris's arm. "Come, lets tell Vincent."

"No. I'll wait by the kitchen while you go and ask, okay," Aeris had a worried and frightened look about her that made Tifa think that she was afraid and didn't like Vincent. "I'll wait by the kitchen with Cloud."

"Yeah. Alright." Her brows began to knit as she walked out of sight to tell Vincent their plans of fun.

"Hey Aeris here is a picture of your husband." She looked back at Cloud and snatched the picture out of his hand, looking desperately at it. "Thanks."

"Sure."

"The way you said I was pretty, wasn't like you." Cloud looked away to his right, after these words.

"Well, for a moment I thought I saw, ...no never mind me," Cloud said softly.

"Ya'know, you talk in a real mellow voice, sort of like Vincent."

"Yeah, like a real man. No, just kidding."

"Do you like to joke a lot?"

"Yeah... I guess. I just do it, without thinking. I use to joke more, but... I became hard after I joined the police committee. But Tifa stopped me from becoming a total jerk. She has always been there for me... Always."

"Yeah, she is a real special lady."

"Yeah," Cloud said, sort of spacing out, "She's a real amazing person. She can persuade anyone."

"Cloud," Aeris smiled, waving her hand in front of his face. "You look like you're not here in this would." Cloud blinked and smiled back at Aeris.

"Yyyyeeeaaahhh!!!" then all became quiet, as Aeris's big emerald green eyes watched Cloud sitting in deep thought.

"Cloud? What are you thinking about?"

"Tifa."

"You look king of sad. What's bothering you? Huh?"

"You know how someone means so much to you, and how you want to spend the rest of hour life with that one person, and you're so afraid of that that person will leave you and move on with some other person."

"Actually, I don't think I've had that feeling before, but I think I'm getting you."

"Yes, well. I'm afraid to move closer to Tifa. I'm afraid it'll wreck our relationship."

"Well, at least you should try. I remember Vincent, when he first...UH!!!"

Cloud looked at Aeris with a very confused face, "What? What's wrong? What were you going to say? Why did you suddenly break off your sentence?"

"That was so strange... I remembered a memory I've never had," Aeris said, breathing heavily.

"What were you going to say?" Cloud asked slowly, very interested what she had to say.

"Something about how I remember Vincent when he first asked a girl on a date. I remember standing in the same room. That is so weird. What's happening with me?

"There isn't a possible way of you being there, but still that is unnaturally weird."

Tifa suddenly ran into the room with much enthusiasm, "Come, let's go. Go get your coat, it's freezing out there."

Aeris smiled then ran to get her coat with Tifa running after her, close behind. She was so excited she didn't pay any attention to where she was going, so suddenly she ran into a hard wall. She stepped back rubbing her nose and looked up at the wall she'd ran into, thinking to herself how that wall hadn't been there before. Only it wasn't a wall. To her horror she had ran right smack into Vincent, making him look at her in the most terrible way. Instantly she disappeared out of sight, leaving Tifa to fix up the terrible situation she had gotten herself.

Tifa and Vincent blinked at each other both in alarm and confusion. "Hey, Vincent," Tifa said angrily. "Be careful, you're scaring the poor girl. You should have seen the look of disgust on your face when she ran into you. It's enough to make her fall apart and cry again."

"It was a reflect. I never had someone run into me before like that."

"Um. That wasn't good. Now she won't talk at all... Maybe you can apologize or something..."

"APOLOGIZE? I think not," Vincent frowned, through half opened eyes.

"Yeah, so I'm going to take her on a walk," Tifa placed her hand on his shoulder. "We'll be back in an hour or so. I'm going to try to take her mind off things. Maybe she'll open up to me and tell me what's up with her." Tifa winked at Vincent and patted his shoulder, then walked out of the room very woman-like.

"Aeris," Tifa said, walking into the kitchen to where Aeris and Cloud had been sitting. Aeris's tear-stricken red face was buried into Clouds chest. "Aeris you ready?"

"Uh...That was so stupid of me. I'm so embarrassed." Aeris smiled weakly, putting her hands up to her deep red blushed covered face. She chocked on a giggle, on an oncoming sob, but she suppressed it by looking at Clouds funny face.

"Oh," Tifa began, "I thought you were crying."

"I was, but-"

"I got to her," Cloud beamed.

"Oh, why does that not surprise me."  She shook her head, while clicking her tongue, "Sounds like Cloud. What did he say?"

"He told me of this one time how he was in the car with you, and he was telling you how pretty you were while he was driving. And when he went to kiss you, he took his eyes off the rode and ran into a parked vehicle."

"Oh," Tifa smirked, "I remember that, it was my car he ran into. It was a good thing he was on my good side at the moment, otherwise I would have killed him."

"You practically did kill me. She wouldn't talk to me for a week, but eventually she couldn't resist," Cloud said jokingly.

Vincent came in suddenly, and said, speaking to Tifa as he went to get a glass of water, "I thought you were leaving."

"Yeah, we are."

Aeris stiffened on hearing his voice. Vincent walked up to Aeris and pulled her bangs behind her ear and then slid his hand off her silky smooth skin. "Have a nice walk. Don't hurt yourself. K? You look nice." Vincent tried really hard to be nice so that he could get on Tifa's good side, only because it was scary being on her bad side. Then Vincent walked silently out of the kitchen, and into his study closing the door half way, behind himself. Normally he would not have done that to any kind of girl, but Aeris was some how different from the rest. Tifa and Cloud looked back at Vincent with such stunned face's, Aeris thought they looked alien. Tifa blinked suddenly, but Cloud still stayed stunned and speechless. He turned around to face Tifa, in which they exchanged alarmed glances at each other. Tifa began to talk, breaking the stunned silence, saying, "I've never seen him be so nice before. Wow? I guess there is more to that guy that meets the eye."

"No, kidding." Cloud said, astonished by Vincent's actions of kindness. "Okay, Tifa," Cloud said, snapping out of his shocked gaze, "If you want to be home here, before dinner, then you better get on your way."

"Yeah, Come Aeris, let's go."

"Hey Tifa, be careful. I want you two to say away from the ally ways, especially the dark abandon streets of no importance."

"Yeah." Tifa put her coat on and exchanged kisses with Cloud, telling him what time to expect them home. On the way out, Tifa yelled bye to Vincent, then shut and locked the door. Cloud came into the study to speak with Vincent about the stunning event that took place only a few minutes ago. "What was all of that you just now did back there with Aeris?"

"... I don't know..."

"Well, whatever it was, it was shocking to see."

"Have you ever felt like you've met someone before, when you actually haven't?" Vincent asked, avoiding eye contact with Cloud.

"Umm...Probably." Cloud replied.

"For one minute back there, I felt like I knew her before. There was just something there... that made her like... Lucrecia..."

"Lucrecia? Earlier today, she said she remembered a memory with you, that she didn't have with you."

Vincent's brows began to knit, "What, memory?"

"You asking someone on a date for the first time, or something."

"Oh, okay. Tell me if she does this again," Vincent commanded, looking away from Cloud.

"Yeah. I'm making dinner now. Need me, just call."

"Thanks, Cloud."

"Yeah. Anytime." With that said, Cloud walked back into the kitchen and began to hum to himself, sometimes singing out Tifa's name. Vincent smiled to himself as Clouds obnoxious voice filled his study. He shook his head as he thought to himself, _Cloud...what a guy._

"Tifa, hum, hum, hum, Tifa." Cloud sang.

-End Chapter 3-

**Review Please**

Next: Chapter 4: The Walk!


	4. The Walk!

Chapter 4: The Walk!

Tifa and Aeris walked briskly on down one of the streets in a sector of Midgar, as they held a deep conversation. "So, Aeris," Tifa smiled brightly. "How's everything going? Is there anything you'd like to talk to me about?"

"No...Well," Aeris hesitated, "I just don't feel sure."

"Oh...how come?" Tifa inquired looking over at the green-eyed girl.

"I feel uncomfortable talking about one of your friends with you," Aeris confessed though not with hesitation.

"Oh." Tifa said understanding to…whom Aeris was referring. "This must be about Vincent. I could sort of tell you don't trust him."

"What," Aeris questioned as her tone of voice changed into worry and seriousness.  She turned her head and look to Tifa with a frown. "Did I walk around with an I-don't-trust-Vincent attitude?"

"No," Tifa laughed out. "So? You don't trust Vincent? If it makes you feel any better, I didn't trust him at first either." Aeris gave Tifa a look of disbelief, for all she knew Tifa was just saying that to open her up. "No. I'm serious," Tifa continued with a short laugh. "The way he's dressed, not that it's bad, but it's just so dark and...well I just don't trust men who have red eyes and clawed hands. Don't get me wrong, I really like Vincent, and I do trust him."

"Why?" Aeris turned her head to look forward once more to watch the tall buildings pass as they walked.  The side walk and street weren't all that crowded and Aeris though it was probably because it wasn't really a sight for business so people wouldn't have a reason to come to the place. 

"Because he has done so many things for me, and has always been there…no matter the circumstances. Believe me, he is a man you can trust. Vincent isn't a person you should be afraid of, and he's definitely someone to be sure of. At first it's hard to see past his appearance and into the man's heart, but once you do... It's like nobody you've ever seen, it's so deep." Tifa had a somewhat dreamy look as she explained this to her friend.

"...Sort of like Rufus?" Aeris asked softly.

"Well, I never met him, not really, but...the way you carry on about him makes him sound like a real gentleman," the brunette commented with a self-satisfied nod.

Aeris's bright eyes began to sting as salty water began to fill them. "I really miss him. I can't stand the thought, of while I'm out here in the free world, he's in Hojo's lab."

"Oh!" Tifa began sympathetically turning into Aeris's path so that they both came to a stop. "Try not to worry about it right now. It might be hard, but just try to let your mind free for a change."

"Tifa…it's not like that with me. I can't just shove the thought of Rufus getting tested on and tortured, and pretend it's not happening. I just can't do that because I know that's what's happening to him."

"You always did have a big heart like that, but I'll tell you something if it makes you feel any better." Tifa moved aside but kept eye contact with Aeris.

"What?" Aeris wasn't sure if she really wanted to know but she thought it would be rude not to act curious though her voice let on to otherwise.

"Vincent is going to help get Rufus out of that lab of Hojo's, along with me and Cloud," Tifa offered with a big smile.

"Really," Aeris's face beamed brightly. "You'll all help me out?"

"Yes, of course. That's what friends are for." Tifa smiled, hugging Aeris to her side with her arm slung around her shoulder.

"I wanted to ask, out of curiosity sake. What happened after you defeated Sephiroth...and after I died," Aeris asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Well...the towns people got together and had a parade in our honor. I dated Vincent for a while-" Tifa stopped in mid sentence blushing bright red.

"You did?!!" Aeris's eyes widened as her brows rose at the thought of Tifa actually dating the mysterious Vincent. "What, how, when did you guys ever talk? I mean he's not the most talkative guy."

"Eh...we just mostly kissed, but rarely in public, because you know, Vincent and crowds don't mix well, especially when he's being affectionate towards a certain someone." 

"I can't believe that that's true. Did you ever think of marriage?" Aeris was shaking her head in wonder.

"No actually. He was so...stiff. I never did consider marrying the man. But there was one thing I really did like about him. He was very protective, and not to mention really handsome." Tifa smiled, she had really liked Vincent and in fact…still did somewhat.

"Why'd you start dating him anyways?"

"Uhm...He never did ask me, we just ...did it. I'd come over to his apartment, then he'd come over to my house, until we just started dating. I really don't know how it all started," the brown-eyes girl confessed.

"What about Cloud this whole time?"

"He dated Yuffie."

"He did? I remember seeing a picture of them together, but there were mostly pictures of you two. So, how long did they date?"

"A week!" Tifa busted out laughing, she just couldn't contain herself.

"A week?!" Aeris's spat, surprised at that fact. "She must have been terrible if he broke it off in a weeks time."

"Well, she's not a terrible person. It's just she really likes to talk. And Cloud, though he is a talkative guy, he does like a few minutes of silence," Tifa smirked.

"Do you love him?" Aeris asked suddenly, making Tifa pause in thought.

"Y,y…Yes...," Tifa stammered, somewhat taken aback by Aeris's question. "Yes. I do." Aeris smiled to herself, as she now had the key to unlocking Cloud's feelings towards Tifa, in which she was going to use in do time, mind you.

"Aeris, Vincent thinks highly of you. He would never hurt you, in fact, that'd be the last thing he'd do. It was shocking to see him act that way to you this morning. He's never done that before to someone, not even me and I went out with him! He must think you're a special person, even though he doesn't really know you."

"Thanks, that's nice of you to say. That makes me feel better about everything. So why did you and Vincent brake up?" Aeris stared down at the cracked pavement as they made slow progress down the street.

"Well. We broke up like we hooked up. It just kind of happened. Nobody can explain, it just happened. Odd, huh?"

"No, not with Vincent. Anyways, I think you and Cloud are a better couple because he needs someone fun and nice, and you need someone you could always count on and who is light-hearted, like Cloud."

"True. Cloud didn't take your death very easily, in fact he took a couple of years to get over it," Tifa stated almost sadly.

"Why?" Aeris frowned.

"Because he finally accepted your death and finds out only months later that you're alive. It's a hard thing to follow, sort of like breaking a window into a million pieces like Cloud's heart, and then trying to put it all back together again. It just can't be done."

"He doesn't still love me does he?"

"Who told you he did?"

"Vincent."

"He loves you like a friend, but no, he finally got over you last year." _At least I think he did… _"It was hard dating him when all he thought about was you. I got sort of jealous, because he'd only talk about you and nothing else, for a while."

"I'm sorry that happened," the other girl murmured.

"It wasn't your fault, so don't apologize. I'm fine."

"Well, I'm glad he's over me, because I think it would have been even worse that if he still cared for me, but I didn't feel the same way."

"Yeah. That would have been really hared on him."

"Tifa? I wanted to tell you something, because it's been bothering me a little bit."

"Huh? And what is that?"

"Um," Aeris began, trying to think of a way to start her sentence, "I ...I remember things that supposedly happened to me, that really never happened to me."

"Like what?" Tifa questioned with furrowed brows, eyeing Aeris closely.

"Well, I really don't know, but I remember being in a room with Vincent long ago, when he as a Turk."

"What happened?"

"He was talking to this woman with brown hair and glasses. He was asking her something special, and I remember feeling really happy for him and this woman."

"Brown hair, and glasses? I was going to say Yuffie, but she never had glasses. Was her hair short?"

"No. Vincent's hair was shorter though. Both her and Vincent looked young, they also looked like they cared a great deal for each other."

"Lucrecia. Must be Vincent's love. Where are you in the memory."

"I'm off to the side watching them as they exchange words."

"Sort of like a friend who's just there?"

"Yeah. Exactly."

"That's very odd. I would hate to remember something I never did. Wow. That's just so crazy. I'm sure Cloud would like it though." Suddenly Aeris stopped dead in her tracks, the look on her face changed from peacefully happy, to a dark scared expression. "What's wrong?" Tifa asked seriously.

"I can feel it. Something's Wrong."

"What is-" Tifa's words were cut short when a loud screeching sound came from the front of the sector. A fast black car swerved into sight, ramming Tifa into the brick wall of a building.

Aeris screamed when she saw the sight of Tifa's helpless body flip through the air, and into the wall, "TIFA!!!" Unexpectedly, Zack jumped out of the car and walked quickly up to Aeris as Nott made her way to Tifa. Aeris body froze in fear at the sight of Zack and Nott. Zack grabbed her midriff as she silently screamed out for Tifa's help while Zack easily dragged her back to the car. "TIFA," Aerith cried desperately, "TIFA, PLEASE HELP!"

Tifa climbed slowly, painfully, to her feet while a fit of coughs chocked her breathing. "Stop," she yelled hoarsely out at Zack. "Let her go." Tifa quickly produced a gun out of her back pocket and pointed it at Zack, who froze at will.

Unpredictable, Nott kicked the gun out of Tifa's hand and onto the pavement as she stood in her way. "She's ours, so stay out of this," Nott growled evilly.

"She doesn't belong to you," Tifa growled protectively, while the pain the car had caused her, filled throughout her body.

"So? Do you think we honestly care?" Nott smiled mockingly back at Tifa's slouched figure.

Zack held his own conversation with Aeris, while Nott picked a catfight with Tifa. Zack looked down at Aeris's quivering body, then loosened his grip, revealing read marks he had caused her skin to make. She whimpered softly as Zack pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket that was drenched with a sleeping potion. She watched helplessly while he went on with his work. Down at the side of his waist, on his right, there was a gun hanging out by a thread. Without even thinking, Aeris snatched the gun out of Zack's holster and held it up to his chest, motioning him to step back. Zack stood in shock for a few minutes, then burst out laughing wildly as he spoke, "Give me the gun, Aeris," he commanded.

"Get away!" She knew the great power one bullet had on a single person, so the very touch of the gun made her small body tremble and her heart pound.

"I hope you're good at fighting, because I know I am," Nott yelled as she ran at Tifa. She swung her foot up hoping to hit Tifa's chin, but she had seen the move coming so she rolled over and rammed her body into Nott's only standing leg, making her fall to all four on the rough pavement. Tifa and Nott both rose to there feet, facing each other with so much hatred and rage, it showed threw their moves. Next, Tifa ran at Nott and wildly threw punches, landing every single one. Nott pulled herself together and was ready for Tifa's next set of punches, in which she had no problem blocking. Nott paused from fighting and began laughing at her persistence. "You _ARE_ a silly girl."

Suddenly a gunshot rang through the air, catching Tifa and Nott's attention. They both turned in the direction of the loud booming sound, and saw the oddest thing in their lives. Aeris was holding a gun with a stunned look on her face as Zack hurled forward to the ground, clenching his chest in agonizing pain. Aeris threw the gun on the ground as she gazed compassionately at Zack. She ran to his side and placed her hands on the backs of his shoulder, saying sympathetically in a low whisper, "Zack...I'm so sorry...Zack."

Tifa took the golden opportunity to grab Nott while she was looking at the absurd scene Aeris had started. She yanked her arms back behind her body and yelled out to Aeris, "AERIS, RUN!!! GO, RUN!!!"

Aeris stood up and looked straight up at Tifa, asking, "What about you?"

"I'll be fine," Tifa shouted angrily, "RUN, AERIS, GO!!!"

Aeris hesitated, her forest green eyes wide with worry, for a moment, truly not wanting to leave Tifa, but thought it best to leave before Tifa lost control. Nott watched in disbelief, as her one hope of freedom slipped out of her hands once again. "NO!!!" Nott yelled desperately after Aeris. 

Zack stood up unhurriedly, with one hand clenching his chest and the other holding the very same gun Aeris had shot him with. He made his way swiftly over to Tifa and Nott, stopping a foot away from Nott's face, "Tifa, let her go."

"No," the fiery fighter growled out from between clenched teeth.

"Zack," Nott growled, very annoyed at Tifa's frivolous actions, "stop talking and get her to let go of me. Better yet, SHOOT HER!!!"

Zack cocked his head to the side to quiet the loud ugly voice of Nott. "Nott, do me a favor and stop yelling, it does hurt my ears. Better yet, shut up! Man woman, you never stop talking...thanks; Tifa let go of Nott."

"NO!!!" she growled angrily once more.

Sick of being held hostage, Nott threw her head back and whacked Tifa in the face, making her hands attend her aching face. Nott passed Zack, who was staring at her with dissatisfaction for what she just did to Tifa, because he did like Tifa. She spat back at Zack quickly before she disappeared out of sight. "Shoot her then get in the car. I'll be waiting." 

Zack turned to face Tifa, who had her head drawn down with her hair flipped over her beautiful features. Zack walked up to her and moved her hair away from her eyes with the nozzle of his gun while she just stood there weaponless and hopelessly powerless. Zack could hear the beating of her heart, as he inched closer to her womanly figure. He gently place his left hand on her chin, forcing her to look up at his wondering eyes, and gently spoke out, "...after all these years, you are still just as beautiful as I remember. Do you remember me?"

"Leave me alone," she said her voice shaking fiercely, as the cold sweat from her forehead streamed done her pale face.

Zack looked away as he tuned to face the car that was to the left of him, to see if Nott was still waiting for him. He looked back at her fear-stricken face and pointed a gun straight at her pounding heart, speaking sadly, "well, it's been a long time. I shouldn't expect you to remember me…I guess."

One loud piercing gunshot rang through the crisp air. 

Clutching her stomach, Tifa cried out in pain, as Nott blew the smoke away from the nozzle of her gun.

Zack twisted around to face Nott who spoke out saying, "Zack. I gave you a chance to shoot her, but I could tell by the look of it, you would not have done so. You have soft spots you need to get rid of, or you might end up dead sometime."

"If, in my job, I have to shoot beautiful woman like Tifa, I'm going to quit."

"Beautiful? You call that ugly thing beautiful."

"Nott, shut up. You're only jealous because you can't look nearly, even on your best days, you can't look nearly as beautiful as Tifa." With that said, Zack plodded back to the car, leaving Nott standing there gapping after his cruel, yet true words. Though she was pretty, her sour attitude poisoned her once fair features.

* * *

Aeris ran swiftly on, down the sectors of Midgar, desperate to get far away from Zack and Nott, as her legs would carry her.

Without her noticing, the bright pink bow unraveled through her hair and fell onto the slopping wet ground of the alley, letting her long beautiful honey brown hair fly freely behind her in the wintry cold wind.

Snowflakes filled the air as she ran for her life.  So peaceful in her time of frantic fleeing…it was ironic for one to say the least.

Have a great day everyone! Hoped you liked it. See ya!

Next: Chapter 5: Reno's Mishap! 

Anybody that wants to post my story on their web site. Just ask. But you have to ask... please. Thank you.

A/N: Sorry everyone for the long wait…been busy, but the last chapters have already been fixed-up so when I get far enough I'll have the chapters up quicker.  Until then, if you haven't already you should check out some of my other stories…though I didn't write this…the end will be mine and I did revise this as best I could.


	5. Reno’s Mishap!

Chapter 5: Reno's Mishap!

Tifa rammed open the door to Vincent's apartment as she clenched her stomach in pain. "VINCENT!" Tifa scream through gasps of breath, "VINCENT!"

Cloud quickly walked into the room and saw Tifa's hunched figure. "Tifa! What happened?" He asked quickly, a little stunned to see her like that.

"They're going to get her..." She cried weakly.

"Who," Cloud said, running up to Tifa. "Who's getting who?"

"Hojo! VINCENT!"

Vincent's door to his study creaked suddenly as Vincent was finally seen. Tifa ran full speed up to him and viciously grabbed his shirt. "You have to help her...(cough) Hojo's going to get her."

"Hojo's going to get Aeris?"

"No, yes. Zack and Nott."

"Nott?"

"We were just walking and-" Tifa sniffs and is cut off by Vincent- but it's probably for the better…they may not have wanted to know all that had happened. 

"What street did you last walk down?" Vincent asked gently though his tone was also demanding for an answer.

And Answer did Tifa- she's near hysterical and just blurts out "Sector six," 

It's at that point that Cloud broke in, trying to sooth Tifa. "Shh, Tifa. Clam down. Come and sit down, before you faint or worse.

"Zack was there. He left me...He left me Cloud. He didn't even care...he just left..." Tifa sobbed.

"Zack? He's alive?" Cloud questions in surprise- but the doubt laced to his tone was quite evident.

"CLOUD! He just left. He didn't care and I was in pain." Tifa repeats, though weather she's in a state of shock or is just making it clear to the blonde is not completely clear. 

"Why was Zack there? Is he working for Hojo?" Cloud asked- finally believing her but in disbelief that his once friend would be working for Hojo again. 

"Yes, and Nott shot me. Zack saw me in pain, and he just left me. He didn't care," Tifa deafly states with another sniff, as tears slowly began ran down her cheeks. "What has happened to him? Why did he leave me..."

"Shh Tifa," Cloud said compassionately, and his brows knit._ Was the Zack that they all knew and loved really working for Hojo? _Cloud took Tifa's hands in his, in an effort to try to calm her nerves, "Tifa. Please sit down before you pass out."

"Vincent! You need to go get her. Cloud you need to help her... She's out there all by herself, and Zack and Nott going after her," Tifa said weakly, her voice begging to sound soft and low.

Vincent looked down at her hand cupped over her stomach, which was now drenched in blood he notices for the first time, "The shot you…which one of them?"

"Nott. Please hurry...and...get...Aeris." The loss of blood finally takes it's full effect on her pathetic body. She collapses forward into Cloud's huge opened arms, as he quickly grabbed a hold of her falling body.

"Tifa!" Cloud said lovingly, full of worry and care. He picked her up slowly and gently placed her flat on her back on Vincent's couch.

"Cloud," Vincent began. "You take Tifa to the hospital, then come back and look for me. I'm going to check the sectors for Aeris," Vincent states coolly though inside he's just as worried as the next person.

"But that'll leave you without a car," the blonde point out as he cradles the fallen girl in his arms.

"I'll run."

"No, I'll wait until you come back, then I'll take Tifa-" Cloud's being stubborn, not really thinking everything through before refusing to let Vincent leave without proper transport.

Vincent crimson gaze lowers to the weary figure of Tifa's, "I don't think Tifa has that much time left on her."

Cloud looked down at Tifa, then back at Vincent. He hated to make Vincent walk, but he would never be able to live with himself if Tifa were to die, "Okay," he finally complies.  "I'll take the car and you go look Aeris." With that said, Vincent disappeared out the front door. 

He ran down his apartment stairs and down into the middle of all the sectors, then stood there for a moment to decide which sector to look through first. The sector less traveled? Or the sectors crowded with groups of people? He knows that if Aeris was in a sector that was over flooded with people, she'd be able to hide and disappear in crowds. So he decided to travel down the less crowded sectors, which was the smarter way to go.

* * *

Aeris ran for what seemed hours to her; her legs were stinging with an unbearable amount of pain, but there was no way she'd let them take her back to Hojo and his lab. She froze up inside at the thought of going back. She wanted to be free, and to live her life being free and doing as she wanted. As she runs headlong she realizes quite suddenly that she hadn't seen a single person while she's been running down this sectors…nit since she got away from Zack and Nott at the least. If she didn't find somewhere to hide soon her legs were going to give out and they'd she'd have no way to get away.

Suddenly, without he meaning too and for the second time, she ran straight into a man. 

The flamey haired man stood there for a moment in a hugging manner. "Whoa. Watch where you're running." Reno would have been harsher on her but the look in her eyes wide, frightened green eyes pierced his melting heart.

"Reno, what do you think you're doing?" Rude questioned smoothly from behinf the other x-Turk.

Aeris gave herself a second to catch her breath as she finally began to gather her wits. Reno stared down at her with a look of don't-you-move-beautiful. "What!? I'm not doing anything." Reno yelled with a great deal of I'm-cool-and-you're-not tone in his voice.

"Elena's going to kill you when she hears this story," the bald x-Turk warns smoothly.

Subsequently Aeris had, had enough resting time so she threw Reno to the side, then started running again. Reno looked back at Rude, "That girl...she looked familiar-"

Elena pushed opened the doors to Tifa's 7th Heaven interrupting Reno's sentence as she came down the stairs, "Do you guys want to have a drink with me?"

"Reno looked up at Elena, his girlfriend, then nods, "Yeah, then let's take a walk. It's a nice night."

"Reno," Elena began. "We have to take a walk in order to get back to our apartment, because SOMEBODY jacked up the car."

"It was on accident," Reno professionally lied. "I was on my way...on getting...you a necklace, heh."

"Uh-huh, just like when you ate my birthday cake and blamed it on the cat." Elena crosses her arms tapping one foot on the ground- almost in a manor of daring him to say more.

"Hey, I didn't lie when I told you that," Reno defends, sounding a bit like a child whining when they didn't get their way.

"Sure." The blonde states sarcastically nodding her head.  "Where is the necklace then?"

"I never did get to the jewelry store, I-"

"Uh-huh, sure. Stop talking." Her voice implies, quit digging the hole you've already been caught.

"Y'know, you're a difficult girlfriend to please," Reno sighs shaking his head.

"My demands are high. You knew that before you started dating me."

"Ok, lets just get a quick drink then go home?" Reno asks, changing the subject as he tried to look as charming as possible.

"Okay," Elena smirked devilishly, "You're paying."

"As usual."

"What did you say?" Elena growled, looking out of the corner of her eyes since she'd begun turning away from him to go back into the bar.

"Huh? What? .... I said... You're beautiful," Reno lied again, making himself look like prince charming in Elena's eyes.

"Thank you."

* * * (Ahh…from this point on Aeris will be Aerith because I don't want to change it anymore…I'll write more in the ending Author's Note.)

Down the sectors Vincent ran. He looked down every street and sidewalk for Aerith, but still she was nowhere to be found. He stopped suddenly on seeing a bright pink bow on the floor of a dark and dreary alley way. One quick flash back proved that this bow belonged to Aerith. He picked up the bow and clenched it in his fist as he began to run again with the hope of finding her soon.

* * *

"No Elena. She just ran helplessly into my arms." Reno said as a matter of fact. "I swear!"

"Oh yes, just like the car and the cake and the frog in my drink. Reno, I can go on and on. That's not a very good sign, and your explanation of why you ere hugging some girl off the streets, is pathetic."

"Elena. I am telling you the truth."

"Uhn. How do I know that? Give me one good reason why I should believe you."

"Rude...ask him, he saw the whole thing."

"Rude wouldn't tell me even if I did ask, because he's always standing up for you, and don't ask me why. I know you were hugging her."

"I swear, I wasn't hugging her. Err!" Frustrated with her stubborn comment, Reno turned his head away in the other direction, not wanting to look at his ,oh so dear, girl friend.

Elena smirked amused at his somewhat cute expression and whispered softly to Rude, "He's so cute when he's angry. I believe him, I just like messing around with him."

"Heh.." Rude smirked, looking down the abandoned sector. "Huh?" Rude began, Elena and Reno staring back at him, "Who's that?"

Vincent came to a stop, deciding it was best to ask the three Ex-Turks if they had seen Aerith come this way.

Reno looked at the questioning gaze Vincent had on his face, asking "Hey man, What's up?"

Vincent spoke swiftly through heaps of breath, "Have you seen a girl with brown hair, jean skirt, white shirt, slender...around 5' feet tall."

Rude broke in saying, "Hey...wasn't that the girl who ran into you?"

"You mean," Elena began, "The girl you were hugging."

"I was not hugging her, though I'd like to think I was." Reno smiled ear to ear.

"Have you seen her," Vincent asked again, making them give him their full attention. "Please, I'm in a hurry."

"Yes," Rude said pointing down the sector to his left. "She went down there, then turned right...about ten minutes ago."

"Thanks," Vincent said starting his way on down the sector that had been suggested to him by Rude.

Elena took off her jacket and walked smoothly up to Reno, who already knew he was in for it for saying what he said. Her womanly figure could be distinguished through her sheer white shirt so well, it dropped Reno's jaw in satisfaction, not that he was dirty minded, but that Elena actually did look nice, or fine shall I say. She pulled his tie to make his face meet hers as she asked smoothly, "What do you mean you'd like to think you were hugging her?"

Reno blinked slowly at the sight of which he saw, stammering out, "E...Elen..Elena. Cut it out. YOU know that you're the only person I truly care about-"

"Thought so. You'll have to catch up with me to show me exactly what you mean." She walked off in a sassy-sexy-like manner, winning Reno's heart all over again and leaving poor Rude to stand speechlessly by himself as they went on with their frivolous actions. 

"Lovers. Glad I'll never be one." Rude said annoyed at Elena and Reno and their silly love battles of who's more important. _Great...I probably just jinxed myself..._

* * *

Cloud made it to the hospital safely and had already had Tifa signed in by ten minutes worth of time.

"So 'ow vaz zis girl 'urt?" The doctor asked in a sharp French accent.

"Uh...a gang fight."

"Oh," She said, scribbling down his answer on a sheet of paper. "O.K. Come vith me." Her voice was a high sweet sound, and her accent complimented her features; greatly. All in all, Cloud thought she was strangely attractive, then again he is known to have good insight on everything. But of course nobody ever comes close to comparing with how beautiful he thinks Tifa is, right? Hah. The doctor stopped unexpectedly when they came to the room Tifa was in. Cloud come in slowly and saw, to his surprise, Tifa sitting up with an I.V. cord in her wrist. The doctor picked up a couple of shots and place them down by Tifa, as she injected one in at a time.

"So," Cloud Began seriously sarcastic, with furrowed brows, "How do you feel?"

"Like I was ran over by a car."

"Ouch, that can't feel to good."

"No, not really." Tifa smiled sweetly.

"O.K." The doctor said, interrupting their inane conversation, "I 'ave good newz, and bad newz. The good newz eez zat 'er belt ad slowed zee bullet down, and zat 'er shirt 'ad socked een all zee blood so zat eet made eet so she deedn't bleed to death. Ze bad newz eez zat she vill not be able to come 'ome to night, but tomorrow she vill."

Barely understanding her words, Cloud nodded then said to Tifa with a pained expression that somewhat confused her, "Tifa, I have to go. I'll come back and check on you tomorrow. Aerith needs me now."

Tifa smiled a fake smile and said sweetly, "Go. Hurry, Aerith and **_Vincent_** need you. Make sure they don't get Aerith."

"Of course. I'm not going to loose her again. Thank you for understanding," Cloud said feeling guilty for having to leave Tifa alone without him to accompany her. He kissed her forehead and then waved goodbye as the doctor showed him to the door. With the last sweet comment of their parting, Cloud said, "I promise to be back by tomorrow and I'll make sure to bring Aerith back."

* * *

"Where did that little nag go? Nott spoke quietly to herself, barely audible to Zack's ears. "Why did you let her go in the first place, Zack?" Nott rode on sourly, giving Zack horrid facial expressions. "Why did you let her go?"

"Uh...she shot me. I couldn't exactly run after her," Zack muttered sarcastically.

"Lame excuse."

"Well, okay. Then tomorrow I'll shoot you in the chest and you can show me how you are able to run after that!"

"Shut up, stop being sarcastic. Y'know, Hojo should have you fired. I can tell you're going to turn on him.'

"...? Okay? Uhm...the only person I'd actually turn on would be, in fact, you." Suddenly Nott jerked the car forward, speeding up to 130 mph. "Nott, slow down."

"No!" Nott spoke crazily. "Why were you being so nice to Aerith."

"Hah? Nott, are you jealous?!!! I'm nice to her, because Rufus asked me too."

"If he were to ask you to jump off a bridge, would you? Just because you were brought to life with his fathers soul, doesn't mean you have to be his father."

"HEY! I respect the kid," Zack spoke firmly and smoothly, persuading Nott to think the same, causing her to slow down. "Not only that, Aerith was thrown around daily, she needs a brake from that, by us."

"Why are you so sensitive?"

"I am? Nott, shut up. Stop talking to me."

"Your sensitivity is going to turn on you some day."

Zack's brows began to knit. "What's wrong with you? Why are tripping out?"

She slowed down a little and Zack could see her face softening as water glistened in her eyes, "Zack.… I'm really upset."

"What? Why?"

"Because Hojo…He killed…he…Rall's dead."

"I'm sorry to hear that. I guess you don't have a shoulder now to cry on anymore," Zack joked with no sign of emotion in his tone of voice. "…Anyways, what do you want me to do about it?"

"You can't do anything about it, even if I did want you to." She turned to face Zack, and for once in a long while, Zack recognized a woman instead of a monster. He reached up and put his hand on Nott's cheek as he wiped away one of the fallen tears, making her feel somewhat loved, "I thought you didn't care about him."

"Of course I did. I almost married him." More tears streamed slowly down her face.

"No matter. Hojo won't kill you," Zack tried to make her feel good, but failing at all attempts, he just sat back and pretended not to be there.

"Don't try to be nice to me…I'm angry with you."

"Okay? Why?

"You called me ugly. Sometimes I don't think you remember that I'm a human with feelings. Yes, feelings…"

Zack began shaking his head as he looked out the window, he was definitely not the affectionate type of guy Nott thought him to be, though he was somewhat like Cloud, that is when Ex-President Shinra doesn't have complete control over his body.. "Right now you're pretty, when you're nice, Nott. But when you start yelling, your face gets all twisted and wrinkly and UGLY. Nott, you are UGLY when you're mad, and you're constantly mad. So you're constantly UGLY, sorry to brake it to you."

Nott stared wide eyed and opened mouthed at him, speaking slowly, trying to contain herself, "Zack, I won't get angry, I'll simply just take that really rude, harsh, CRUEL statement as a compliment." 

"It was a compliment. I'm just saying, you're more attractive when you're not angry, and when you are…uhm…nice, I guess."

"Y'know. You suck at giving compliments."

"Hey, I'm working at it, and at least I tried."

"Yeah, that's true. So will you take me out."

"No. I don't date. Besides, you wouldn't like me my style of dating anyway, I make the girls pay, and I choose where to go and what to do. And don't even try to like it. And…dd…uhm. NOTT. STOP TRYING TO BE NICE TO ME. It just doesn't suit you. Ack? Sorry, but uck."

"You know how much sense Zack, you just now didn't make."

"Huh?" Zack muttered, not at all interested.

"You say I'm ugly when I'm mad, but I'm pretty when I'm nice, and you tell me to not be nice."

"No. You can be nice, just not to me. Please!" Zack shook his head in disgust. He just didn't and couldn't think of Nott that way, all romantic and nice. Yes, he did work with Nott for about five years, but he thought of her as just Nott, nothing more, nothing less.

Unexpectedly Nott slammed on her brakes and came to an alarming stop, pushing Zack out of the car with her hands, "Zack? She cried, while Zack tried to get her hands off of his body.

"Ack! Stop it woman! Get your-"

"LOOK! There she is." She cried happily, her voice sounding normal and cruel again, "She's by the skating wring."

Zack turned around and saw Aerith leaning against a brick wall, breathing heavily. He got out quickly and quietly whacking Nott's unwanted hands away, as he slowly and silently made his sneaky little way over to Aerith.

_I can't do this…I cant' make it, _Aerith thought to herself, with tears of fear and pain rolling down her silken face. She suddenly turned around on hearing the crunching foot steps of Zack, who was now only just ten feet away from her. Feeling fear pound through her heart, Aerith began to run again.

"No-uh…Stop, Aerith," Zack shouted, stumbling over the heaps of snow. 

"Ahh! Help! Get away from me!" Aerith cried in fright, landing on the ice with Zack still following close behind. She and Zack soared through the ice, though Zack twisted into split's a few more times then he had control over.

Zack looked up at Aerith in horror, she had, without knowing, entered the area with thin ice, "Aerith NO! STOP!" But more eager to get away then to listen to Zack's warning, Aerith continued running with Zack following still, close behind, "Aerith, you're on thin ice, get off."

"No, just get away from me," She cried. To Zack's relief, she had made it safely across the thin ice and onto the other side, where she escaped down an ally. As for him, he wasn't so lucky. His tremendous body weight over powered the thin ice, making him slide into the freezing lake water, but Aerith hadn't seen this great event take place so she thought he was still pursuing her.

She turned sharply down a dark ally way, panting frantically, wishing for nothing more than to get away. 

"AERITH!!!" Zack yelled after Aerith, who was still in earshot.. "I'M GONG TO **_KILL_** YOU WHEN I FIND YOU, AND YOUR FRIENDS! ! !"

_Friends, _Aerith thought, _No! Leave them all alone. _Suddenly her thinking was cut short when she turned the corner. She tried to stop but just couldn't, and accidentally ran into a large man. He grabbed her arms while bringing her face to look at his.

"NO! LET GO," Aerith cried, slapping the man with all her might, which was soft, because she had drained all of her physical energy running that night. "LET GO." She began to weep softly, hopping that this hellish nightmare would just end.

"Aerith," he spoke calmly in a voice she recognized and hoped she'd hear right about now, "Shh! It's me, Vincent."

She withdrew her hands and looked up at his face, smiling pathetically soft, "Vincent?"

"I'm right here. Are you alright?"

"I…feel…terrible," Suddenly she gave out, fainting into Vincent's arms. She was too frightened and worried to give herself time to think about how tired her body was, causing her body to go in shock, to fainting into Vincent's arms. Vincent slung her body over his shoulder, then began his walk home. He frowned at the very thought of having to walk all the way home while carrying Aerith. But to his luck, Cloud had just pulled up in his car."

"Hey, Vincent! Get in, " Cloud called out, unlocking the car doors.

Vincent slid Aerith in, then got in himself, shutting the door behind him. When they were both buckled in and everything was good, Cloud drove off, in the direction of Vincent's house. Aerith laid her head mechanically against Vincent's shoulder then sweetly grabbed his arm, making Vincent freeze. He wasn't the affectionate type, and here Aerith was cuddling up against his body, but he ignored his thoughts of pushing her away, because, he had to admit, her skin did feel good against his, all soft and cold.

"How's Tifa," Vincent asked suddenly, disturbing the cold silence.

"Well…I don't really know. She looks okay. The doctor says she'll be able to come home tomorrow. I did ask her how she felt and she said. Like she had been ran over by a car," Cloud sighed deeply, then asked, "How is Aerith?"

"She looks fine. She is sleeping."  
"Yeah? That's good. I was really worried about her. Really worried about her, Tifa too…I'm tired." Cloud blinked the fatigued feeling out of his stinging eyes. He picked up his walkie talkie and pushed down the button, then began to speak into it... saying, "This is Cloud, Reeve. Pick up. Over…"

"_This is Reeve. What's up Cloud? Over_…"

"I have a man and a woman to report. Over…"

"_Do the man first. Over_…"

"His name is Zack, according to Tifa. He has black hair, tall, muscles, drives black car… Over…"

"_Gotcha…Over_…"

"The girl. Her name is Nott (according to Vincent), Brown hair, slender, big attitude. Drives black car…Over…"

"Aerith," Vincent said, breaking into the conversation, "Said what in this town, she's known by the name of Julia or Jewel."

"Reeves…Val, here, says that in this town she's known as Julia or Jewel…Over…"

"_Got it all, anyone, or anything else? Over_…"

"No, that's it. Over and out." Cloud slid his w. t. Back onto his police belt then drove into Vincent's driveway. Cloud got out and opened the door for Vincent. "Here, give me the girl, because you have the keys to the apartment," Cloud made up an excuse, saying anything to hold Aerith, his…love. Vincent hesitated for a moment, noticing the odd look Cloud had in his eyes…A look of regret and …love. Vincent handed him the girl, then shut and locked the doors to the car. Making their way up to Vincent's apartment, Cloud said, "Wow, Aerith is so light compared to Tifa."   
"Tifa has more of something, and muscles, Cloud," Vincent said flatly, not knowing that he made Cloud laugh. Vincent opened the door for enough time to let Cloud and himself in, then he quickly shut and locked the door. Vincent ran up the stairs after Cloud, and followed him into Aerith's room. Cloud placed Aerith within the bed covers as Vincent removed the outer clothing.

"Poor girl…" Cloud said compassionately, shaking his head at the ice-cold touch of Aerith's skin. "She deserves so much better…I'm going to kill Hojo… Only if Tifa had not taken her on a walk…Tifa's a foolish girl." Vincent raised his eyebrows in surprise at what Cloud had just said. "I wonder why Hojo brought her back to life." Cloud said quietly.

"…"

"Or why he wants her."

"She's important to him for some reason." Vincent said, folding Aerith's jacket, and placing it on the side table.

"Yeah… Well I have to go. Tomorrow I'm going to pick up Tifa. I'm tired." Vincent could distinguish a hurt unforgiving look in Cloud's eyes, instantly knowing that there was something wrong.

"You can't take my car."

"No. I rented a cab…"

Vincent followed Cloud out to the entry, opening the door for him. "Cloud…?"

Cloud didn't answer but just walked outside, not wanting to be noticed.

"Hey, Cloud. Are you okay."

_No answer_

Vincent put his hand on his back then asked again, as Cloud turned around. Vincent pulled his hand away in wonderment. Cloud's face was flush and his eyes were swollen with sudden tears of pain. "Cloud?" Vincent began softly, "Are you…okay?" Vincent motioned for him to sit down on the couch as he shut the door once again, leaving it unlocked. Cloud tried to speak but the words were lost to him Vincent knew Cloud for quiet awhile, though why he was crying, which was odd for Cloud to do, was not that hard to figure out. "What's wrong Cloud?" Vincent asked seriously in a worry tone.

Suddenly Cloud burst out. He had held himself in for days ever since Aerith had come back, "I can't stand this. I'm still in love with Aerith but I love Tifa too. When the news that Aerith was hurt, I wanted to go and rescue her and leave Tifa here, not caring about her needs. I've tried so hard to forget about Aerith, that when She came back suddenly, I went crazy mentally, but didn't show it. I've tried so heard to suppress my emotions for her so I wouldn't upset Tifa. Why did she have to come back? I know I can't hide my feelings forever. Everything was becoming perfect for me and Tifa. Now I question my love for Tifa, but I know I love her. Though I know I love Aerith too. I don't know who I love more. I've known Tifa far longer, but Aerith has a place in my heart that I can't let Tifa have. I can't get her image out of my head. Tifa was kissing me the other day, and I found myself wishing it was Aerith in my arms. I don't know what to do. Vincent…I need your help, if you have any to offer…" Cloud looked up, his desperate gaze and swollen eyes looking for help from Vincent.

"Who do you love more?"

"I DON'T KNOW!!! It wouldn't even matter," Cloud began to actually cry. He just couldn't handle it, but releasing his anxiety was a great remedy for mental hurt in this situation, for now. "Aerith is already married. She already made it known to me that she's over me. I mean…You know how bad I hurt in my heart when she told me she didn't remember me…I felt like someone had shot me in my heart, a thousand times, over and over and over again. Uhh-huhhh."

"Okay. Cloud I can't talk to you when you're not sane. Take a deep breath."

"(Sigh.)……(pause)…… So what do suggest I do?"

"…I…uhm…"

"GREAT, you don't even know any solutions to my problem. ………Maybe if I pretended to die, and went off with Aerith-"

"Cloud-"

"…Then me and Aerith can be together without Tifa knowing about us-"

"Cloud-"

"…No. Tifa would somehow find out…Even if she didn't, she loves me…and if I were to lie to her and leave her-"

"Cloud-" Vincent tried again.

"…I would hurt Tifa and scar her for life, making her become like me now…"

"CLOUD!"

"WHAT!"

"Now that I know that I have your attention. Listen to me when I ask you this. Why do you love Aeris still-"

"Because I'm emotionally and mentally attached to her. Plus! I'm physically attracted to her. AND! I'm spiritually connected to her. Uhg!" Cloud snorted, punching his hand into Vincent's wall. Vincent's eyes widen in amazement. Cloud had never acted up this badly before, for a long time, if ever. Vincent could tell he was really hurting mentally, though sincerely he didn't know how to help him. Cloud withdrew his hand and apologized to Vincent for punching a whole in his wall.

"Don't worry. Now my wall's more interesting to look at."

Cloud smiled, to Vincent's satisfaction, again hiding his mantel ache. Though Vincent knew he still was hurting, because if you're hurting that bad, you just don't get over the heart aching pain just by talking about it. And it doesn't just go away. "Vincent." Cloud started up again, in the same tone of voice as before. "I'm a jerk. Look at me. I'm thinking of leaving Tifa, and I'm ashamed at the very thought of me thinking so. I can't believe me. I know Tifa really cares about me. Enough to marry me. I can see it in her eyes, and I was going to ask her, but Aerith came back into view. I guess my life is suppose to be full of hardships and all. I wish that Aerith never died, and that Tifa had a better man, than me." 

All became silent as Cloud gradually began calming down. Cloud took a deep breath then wiped away his tears. "I'll always love Aeris, but I know Tifa needs me." Suddenly, to Vincent's surprise, Cloud began to laugh through his tears. Had he gone mad? "Vincent. I'm so pathetic. My life sounds like a dramatic soap opera. Who will I choose, the stunning Tifa, or the long lost love of my life, Aeris. Ahehahah" Vincent smirked at Clouds silly words and patted him on the back, like a father would a son. "Thanks for talking with me. I really needed it." Cloud said, pulling open the front door. He walked into the night, stopping to face Vincent as he said his last words of the night.

"Cloud," Vincent said with furrowed brows, "If you ever want to talk…don't hesitate to ask."

"K. Thanks…Bye."

Vincent shut and locked the door, shoving his key quickly into his right pocket. He stopped suddenly on feeling something soft and slopping wet on his fingertips. He pulled it out swiftly, only to see a dirty wet pink bow that Aerith had worn only hours before. He placed it neatly on the table then sat down on the couch. 

He never really knew how tired he actually was, until he gave himself time to notice. Then he laid back onto the couch without removing a single piece of clothing as he pictured the earlier events in his head, while getting completely lost into the deepest sleep he had all month; with Aeris running through his dreams.

Well I hoped you like that last chapter I just made up... Have a nice day! Bye!!!

Next: Chapter 6: At The Hospital!

Anybody that wants to post my fics on their web site. Just ask. But you have to ask... please. Thank you.

(Note from Rueh: Ok, I am very sorry to those who wanted quicker updates, and I'm wiling to give them to ya.  I'm going to quit editing the chapters for now…I have been changing Aerith's name to Aeris because that's just the way I spell it.  I'll post a chapter once or twice a week for now on till I run out of chapters…and I have already edited the last few chapters- AND there will be a new one or two to add also! Over the summer I'll go fix up the rest of these chapters, so…hope that's ok with you all!)


	6. At The Hospital!

Chapter 6: At The Hospital!

Aerith woke up in a good mood the next day only because she had forgotten most of the events that had taken place last night, but she replayed the events in her head that she did remember as she got dressed. It was raining outside, but the sun could be seen, peeping out of the gray dark clouds of puff. She slipped on a pink flower shirt, and a long jean skirt with buttons. After she was done, she made her way slowly down the stairs, stopping at the 2nd step to the last as she met Vincent's piercing gaze, while he quietly examined her.

"Hi," Vincent said, "How are you felling?"

"Good, ... and you?" She asked barely audible to Vincent's ears, with a crackling sound that she had acquired during her sleep.

"..."

"Vincent? What time is it?"

"...12:00."

"Oh! I really slept in!"  
"...How's your wrist?"  
"It sort of hurts... a little."  
"Come here. Let me take a look at it." Aerith walked shyly up to his tall figure, and put her wrist in the air for him to take. He gently pulled the bandage down, only to reveal a gruesome cut. _Ah, that looks bad_, Vincent thought to himself as he flashed his hand over her wound. "Cure." Aerith jumped as a huge wave of healing water swirled around them, instantly she could feel her cut healing somewhat, though the materia wasn't strong enough to heal the cut all the way to a perfect state.

"That was amazing! How did you do that? Can you teach me?" Aerith asked, acting like a child in Vincent's eyes.

"Later," Vincent's smirked, turning away from her dramatic pleading gaze.

"Okay."

Vincent walked into the living room and sat down. He picked up a large book and opened it as he sat quietly, leaving her to herself. "Aerith," Vincent called out, trying to catch her before she left the room. "There is food and water on the table, if you are hungry. Be ready to leave in a half an hour."

"Okay, thanks. Leave? Why?" Aerith inquired.

"Cloud's going to bring us both with him when he goes to pick Tifa up from the hospital."

"Oh! I had almost completely forgot about last night. I guess I was just to over whelmed and tired to remember." Aerith's heart skipped a beat as she asked the next question, "How is Tifa?"

Vincent could hear a great deal of concern and care in her voice, so he chose his words carefully. "She's going to be fine."

"Oh, good!" She sighed, feeling relieved.

After a few minutes of silence, Vincent broke in and commanded, "Go, eat."

"K." Aerith turned around and headed down the hall, and into the kitchen. She grabbed a book off the shelf and slapped it onto the table, so she could read while she ate. She had never had pizza before, so she was excited to eat her lunch. A few minutes later, she found herself eating her 2nd piece because it was so satisfying to her.

After she finished her food, Aerith opened the book to the title page, "_Scientific Lab Facts, for the Scientist_," Aerith said aloud to herself. She turned to the next page that had two picture's on it though one was taped on and not an original page in the book. The printed one was a picture of Professor Gast, and the taped one was a picture of Lucrecia. Aerith slid her index finger down the picture of Lucrecia, and for one split second, Aerith felt she had seen and had known this woman very well, more then she'd even have an idea that she knew. Aerith blinked rapidly, trying to snap herself out of the deep trance she had let herself into. She turned the page, SUDDENLY, with all her might, she hysterically in panic, slapped the book onto the floor. Still, the book kept the page open to force Aerith to look at the very person she feared most, Professor Hojo. Hojo's eyes suddenly flashed in the picture and shot a piercing glance deep through the depth of Aerith's fragile soul. Her lungs lapsed, and her heart pounded wildly as she fell to the floor gasping for air. She clawed wildly at the carpet while she gagged on her throat, and chocked on blood.

Vincent rushed into the kitchen at the noise of her frantic choking sounds for life and breath. "Aerith." Vincent cried in alarm. He knelt down beside her and placed one hand on her shoulder.

Aerith forced out three words, " I (cough) can't (cough) breath (cough)," Vincent rolled her on her back, then bent down and blew air into her lungs. He then sat her up and began patting her on the back, trying to clear her airway. Still Aerith coughed violently while she clenched her pounding heart in pain. Cold sweat rolled down her cheeks, as she rasped for life. Vincent withdrew his helping hand when she suddenly turned to the side and threw up the contents of her stomach along with the blood that had been preventing her from breathing. Her breathing returned to normal, but she still kept on coughing.

Vincent placed his hand on her back then looked down into Aerith eyes with a questioning gaze, "Are you okay?" She nodded and slowly reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck. He pulled her to her feet then slowly escorted her to the stairs, "Aerith, are you sure you're okay?"

"...Yeah. I feel okay." She mumble out softly, pulling her messy hair behind her ears.

"What happened?"

"I don't really know, it happened so fast." Aerith mumbled, avoiding eye contact because of pure humiliation.

"... Don't do that again."

"...I'll try not to, but I don't think I can help it. And...Thank you for helping me."

Vincent turned away blushing slightly, then said shortly with no emotion, "Go get your shoes on." He said this wanting her to leave, so she wouldn't praise him for doing nothing really. Aerith slowly walked up the stairs and into her room, with the aftershock of pain rippling through her chest.

Vincent walked into the kitchen and cleaned up Aerith's mess, while replaying the scene over and over again. He washed off the towel and quickly threw it on the counter, as he started to make his way to the Living Room. He stopped suddenly when he, on accident, kicked the book that Aerith had been meaning to read, "_Scientific Lab Facts, for the Scientist!"_ With a puzzled look forming onto his face, Vincent picked up the book then quickly slid it back into it's place on the wooden book shelf.

Unexpectedly, the door bell rang, making Vincent avert all his attention to it. He looked through the eye whole, then quickly opened the door to let Cloud in.

"Hey, Vincent. Are you both ready to go?"

"She'll be down in a moment."

"Great. So how is she doing?"

"...Well," Vincent began with furrowed brows, showing that he was thinking hard of what he should and should not tell Cloud. "She said that she was okay."

"Oh, what a relief that is to hear. I was so worried about Tifa as it was, and plus my job on top of that. It's just nice to have one less person to not be hurt. So, how are you?"

"Tired."

"Yeah, well you did run for a couple of hours last night."

"How do you feel about Tifa, now that you've had some sleep and time to think about her?"

"Uhm...I thought a lot about what we said, last night. And I came to a decision."

"A final decision," Vincent confirmed.  
"Yes."

"Then that means you can't go back on it, once you make it."

Cloud sighed than looked down at his feet, struggling for the words to fill his mouth. "...Yeah, I know. I've decided to be with Tifa."

It was silent for a few minutes, then Vincent replied saying, "I know that that was a tough decision for you to make, but I too know that you will find more happiness down that road."

"Yeah." Hot tears filled in Cloud's eyes, but he quickly flicked them away, not wanting to start up in another conversation with him, Tifa and Aerith again. "Yeah. Well I really do love Tifa, probably more then I , myself, even could know. But, Vincent? I don't want you to talk about this with anyone. Especially not with Tifa. I want to go on like nothing has changed."

"I understand." Vincent put his hand to his aching head and started rubbing at it, when Aerith's soothing voice rang out, "Are you guys ready to go?" Vincent looked up at her, watching her slowly come down the stairs, in an elegant fashion.

"HEY, BEAUTIFUL! How's it going?" Cloud beamed brightly through a fake smile.

"Great!" Aerith smiled then turned her face away in shy embarrassment as she felt the eyes of Vincent and Cloud watching her closely. Suddenly, when she reached the fifth step, she just, without any warning whatsoever, flipped out into a fainting sweep. Cloud choked on his heart as he saw Aerith's slender figure slide down the steps. He and Vincent both ran to her aid and grabbed her arms while pulling her slowly to her feet. She grabbed Cloud's shirt and put one arm around his neck, slumping against his huge chest, as she came to her senses.

"Aerith, don't you tell me you're doing great, when you're clearly not. Geeze girl, you scared me."

Aerith never really had seen Cloud so serious before, so the embarrassment and stupidity quickly went away. "Sorry,. I don't know what happened. I just...passed out."

"Just don't ever do it again," Cloud said, picking her up off the floor into a cradling fashion. "I'm not going to let you walk for at least ten minutes."

Vincent followed Cloud to the door, then quickly opened it to let Cloud and himself out into the world as Cloud was being dramatically cautious the whole time. "Watch out for her foot, watch out for her foot." Cloud frowned seriously, making Aerith feel uncomfortable.

"Cloud, stop it. You're scaring her." Vincent said while pushing him to make him go faster.

"Oh, sorry," Cloud mumbled out flatly in humiliation.

* * *

"Stop," Hojo commanded, pulling away his men from the act of beating on Rufus. "I'll give you one more chance, boy. Where does this girl named Tifa live?" Hojo grabbed Rufus's blonde silvery hair and yanked his head back to stare into Hojo's blood piercing red eyes. Rufus unexpectedly, to Hojo's amazement, flung his hand into the air and hit Hojo across the face, knocking his glasses off onto the floor. Hojo savagely grabbed his shirt and rammed him into the wall, then punched him in the stomach with an unbearable amount of force, causing Rufus to hurl forward to his knees. "Nott! Bring Ruffus down to his cell, NOW!!!" Nott picked up Rufus's quavering body, and slowly brought him to his feet. Just as they reached the door, Ruffus jerked out of her grasp and ran at Hojo. He flipped into powerful back kick, and landed it on Hojo's back, causing him to fly flat onto his face. Nott quickly grabbed Rufus's arms and yanked him into control, as she violently forced him down into the basement.

"NOTT, STOP," Hojo barked viciously. "Bring the boy HERE!" Hojo's veins rippled with rage as he snatched one red shot off the shelf. He walked up to Rufus and savagely struck the shot into the main vein in Rufus's arm, saying, "I hope you enjoy the feel of knives tearing through your body, because that is the sensation this shot will allow you to have, just like it did Aerith. By the way, did you know that I sent her materia a command today to force her to feel this incredible sensation, without having to inject a shot into her, And I learned that I could do this at any time of the day, with one quick snap of my fingers. If you do not cooperate, I'll send her another one."

"Don't, DON'T YOU DARE HARM HER!!!!!" Rufus fiercely shouted out with tears of rage filling his eyes. Nott quickly and easily dragged Rufus down to his cell, because he had given up, and didn't want to cause Aerith more pain then she had to go through. "I HATE YOU, YOU SICK PERVERT. HOW COULD YOU LIVE, KNOWING YOU'RE CAUSING SOMEONE TO GO THROUGH SO MUCH PAIN. HOW COULD- UHHHH." A gruesome smirk formed across Hojo's green burbling face as he heard the sound of Rufus's sad voice, cry though the air, with the tinge of pain and misery floating along with it.

"He's weakening."

* * *

Arriving shortly after Vincent, Cloud, and Aerith, had left the house, a nurse greeted them saying, "Tifa's papers have been filed and she's doing pretty well. If you'll please follow me, I'll show you to her room. She was moved late last night because, her Doctor did surgery on her to remove the bullet from her body...Right through this door please." The nurse slowly opened the door to let Cloud, Vincent and Aerith in. Without hesitatioin, or waiting another moment, Cloud pushed the door open, out of the nurses grasp and ran into see the one person he said he loved most, leaving Vincent and Aerith outside on the other side of the door.

A tall male doctor stood in the door way, gazing at Cloud, like he was a lovesick psycho. Vincent walked in next pushing the doctor back, out of his way, and looked back at Aerith. She stood there for a moment, waiting for the doctor to make his way out of the room. The doctor looked down at Aerith's slender body and smiled through a mask that covered his face and some of his spiky black hair. _Aerith,_ Zack smiled, _So Tifa is her friend. _Suddenly a sharp piercing pain shot through Aerith's chest as he passed her by. Vincent grabbed her arm and pulled her into the room, not noticing the extreme pain she was in. She clutched her chest and coughed softly as the pain just suddenly went away, leaving her to feel just perfectly fine. Vincent looked down at her puzzled look, then asked, "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah," she said hesitantly,... _But what just happened? Why did it happen? Who was that man? _She never saw Zack in white before, so she didn't recognize him in his new doctor outfit he was wearing. He just usually wore dark, depressing colors, along with a sad cold expression on his face.

Cloud ran up to Tifa and hugged her, sliding her off the table in the process, in this huge manly grip. He kissed her then grabbed her shoulders, looking straight at her smiling face, "How are you feeling?" He asked enthusiastically.

"Fine."

"Yeah? That's great to hear."

"I missed you."

"Yeah, I'm sorry I had to leave." Cloud looked away on feeling guilt for both having to have left her for Aerith, and for the discussion he had with Vincent last night.

"It's okay, I forgive you," Tifa teased, playfully. She then walked over to Vincent, and punched him kindheartedly in the arm, and happily said, "Hey, Vincent. Looks like you did your part. Thanks." Tifa hugged him quickly, though she knew that he was a little shy around those kind of things. But happy to see her, Vincent patted her on the back. She walked over to Aerith and hugged her tightly. "I'm glad you're safe. I was really worried all night long, I even dreamt about you."

"Are you okay?" Aerith asked, not caring about herself.

"Yes. I feel like such an idiot though. I should have been able to take them on by myself, even though I wasn't fully prepared for battling."

"Well Tifa," Cloud said, in the act of making her feel justified, "When's the last time you've been in a real battle like that? Four years ago, or so?"

"Yeah, that's true," Tifa frowned, "But still I should have been able to take them on. I'm going to beat myself up about that forever now."

"Tifa. Don't be so hard on yourself," Vincent said, trying to make Tifa feel better, and succeeding in the process, "We all make mistakes." Vincent turned and grabbed Aerith's arm, then said, "I'm going to have a doctor check her wrist out."

Cloud spoke after Vincent's words, saying, "Okay. I'll go with Tifa and sign the papers for Aerith's check up, right now. So we can leave right after she's done. Vincent nodded then pulled Aerith out of the room, and into the hallway. He stopped at a desk with a female sitting at it, asking if she could check out a cut wrist. Vincent found that woman usually have more pity on hurt people, then men do. And that they usually just couldn't say no to him, it was a fact that he liked.

"Okay. I'll need you to sign some papers at the front," She beamed brightly.

"I already have."

"Well then, follow me this way-"

"Hum...it's my friend."

"Oh!"

Aerith's heart skipped a beat at Vincent's mentioning she was his friend, though that's not what Vincent meant to say. He was so nervous about any one seeing his claw, which was carefully hidden, that when the nurse said to follow her she grabbed onto his metal claw, making him crack, saying friend. Even though Aerith was his friend, a very dear one at that, he'd never go right out and say it like that.

The nurse asked her to follow her to Doctor Sean's office, as she placed her hands on Aerith's small shoulders, "Oh wait! There he is now. Sean, Doctor Sean." Vincent and Aerith turned to meet an over sized man, tall in stature, with slicked back, blonde hair, which was neatly kept. "Doctor Sean. That man wants to know if you could have a look at this little sweeties wrist."

"Yeah sure, follow me," doctor Sean said, kindly grabbing onto her arm and pulling her into the direction of his office, "Come on, Sweetheart." Vincent was in a win and won situation. The nurse would have said yes to Vincent, no matter what, and visa versa with Aerith and Doctor Sean. Aerith looked back and reached for Vincent being afraid to depart from before his presence. He thought to himself that she needed to learn to do things without him, because there wasn't a possible way for him to always be there for her, when ever she had to get out into the world.

Vincent turned around, on hearing the sound of angry voices caring throughout the hall. He turned to see Yuffie throw her hand up in Red 13's face, yelling, "Talk to the hand, because the face ain't listening."

Red 13 turned away from her, and stormed out of sight as he barked out the words, "YOU'RE SO IMMATURE, SCRAWNY LEGS."

"Oh, and you think you're not?" Uhg!" Yuffie began plodding away, and stopped in front of Vincent, "Oh, hi Vincie."

"Hi."

"How 'sit going?"

"Mm-uh-"

"That's nice to hear."

"Why were you yelling at him?"

"Oh, no reason really. He's just fun to argue with. Oh, yes, and he crashed my car off the road and into a lake, but it's okay with me, because the boyfriend, I now have, makes cars for me, for FREE."

"Oh." Vincent said flatly.

"Yeah, I know, he's the greatest guy."

"Yeah." Vincent said sarcastically, "Who are you dating?"

Yuffie smiled real big, then slyly spoke out saying, "EVERYBODY. I date a lot of people, then I pick the one I like most, out of the lot. And then I serious date him. Isn't that GREAT?"  
"Yeah, that's great... How many guys do you date at a time?" Though Vincent sounded like he was not at all upset, he was very much disgusted by her presence. He had to hand it to her, she was getting beautiful and pretty smart with men every second of the day, but she still had no clue how much Vincent disliked her presence.

"Uh...20. I have a guy for every part of the day. Lunch, dinner, art class, you name it, and I'm bound to have a guy in that area, that I'm dating. Pretty cool huh?"

"What do you do when they find out about each other?"

"They try to kill each other behind my back."

"How do you know?"

"How do I know? They tater-tail on each other. Men are so silly. I command them to stop fighting with each other, and they listen; afraid that I might dump them."

"Oh." She was now twenty-one, and very much transformed from a little materia-stealing ninja brat, to an amazing, fun to be with kind of person, though sometimes she'd have the moments where she was totally clueless, and a huge klutz...like the kind of person Vincent very much disliked.

"Hey Vincent, maybe we could hook-up sometime."

Vincent looked at her in amazement, she actually asked him out, "Uh... Yuffie. Uhm."

Yuffie walked up closer to him and hugged his arm, while Vincent stood, paralyzed from the hair, and down. "I wanted to date a man kind of like you. All mysterious and all. So what do you think about dating me?" Yuffie inquired of Vincent.

"Yuffie. I'm thirty-two and you're twenty-one. See the huge difference in age. Yuffie. You're too young for me."

"So. It's not like I'm dating you to marry you. I want to date you for fun."

"Sometimes when a couple dates for fun, they end up getting married, because they really get to like each other and all, something I really don't want to do with you."

"No. I promise not to marry you. I don't even really like you in that way."

Vincent sighed in relief, "Good. Uh-hum, I'll think about it, but the answer might most likely be-"

Yuffie cut in knowing what he was about to say, asking, "How's Cloud and Tifa doing?"

"Huh?" Vincent said. Yuffie changed the subject so fast, she caught Vincent off guard, "Oh...uhm...Good."

"Why are you here?"

"No apparent reason."

"Oh. Doesn't sound like you. Why?"

"Tifa's getting a check up."

"Oh. That's good. So what do you think of my hair? I decided to grow it out long."

"Looks nice."

"Oh, you're such a sweetie. Thanks."

"Swee-tie?" Vincent repeated in disgust.

"Yuffie, what are you doing?" Red 13 asked suddenly, "Leave the poor man alone. Get your greasy hands off of Vincent, Yuffie. He doesn't want them there. So just leave him alone because he hates you and he can't stand you."

Yuffie waited for Vincent to say something, but his silence drove her to know that the comment Red 13 made, was true. "Humph. What would you know?" She walked past Red 13, then stormed out of sight when Vincent still kept silent.

"I love it when she does that," Red 13 winked walking away from Vincent.

Unexpectedly a very beautiful female doctor walked out of a door and into the hall, saying, "Is there a Red 13 waiting for a cat scan?"

"That's me," Red smiled, and followed the little lady to a room on the left, "By any chance, are you married?"

Unpredictably, Vincent felt a little tug on his shirt. Turning around he met Aerith's gentle gaze, "I'm done."

"Wait sweetie, I'd like to have a word with your guardian." The doctor said, handing Vincent the kit he himself made up for Aerith. "In this kit, you'll find bandages, shot's and the medicine to fill the shots. She will need lots of water and sleep in order to let her wrist heal the best it can heal, and if she gives it the right care, it will heal beautifully. The stitch's will disappear, or dissolve in a matter of time, so don't worry about those. She was a great patient. She didn't break a cry once when I was operating on her wrist, she was actually very calm through the whole thing."

Vincent raised his brows at Aerith, showing that he was somewhat impressed. "Thank you. How shall I pay you?"

"Don't. It's all on me. Well I better go. Have a nice week guys, see ya' later sweetie."

"Bye doctor Sean," Aerith said, rubbing her wrist. "My wrist feels a lot better, Vincent."

"..."

"Though, my bandage is a little tight."

"How many stitches did you get?"

"Seven or so."

"Wow. Just on that tiny little wrist," Vincent gawked in amazement.

"Yeah. Well the cut was deep. OH, LOOK! It's Cloud and Tifa." Aerith smiled as she became excited, pointing to the glass doors. Both Tifa and Cloud were standing out side of the glass doors, waiting patiently for Vincent and Aerith.  
Vincent and Aerith made their way outside and into the car. Vincent got into the drivers seat, Aerith in the passengers seat, and the two "love birds," got into the back.

"So Aerith, how did your check up go?" Cloud asked, as Vincent drove onto the main rode.  
"It hurt a little, but I'm fine. I actually feel better."

"Oh, that's nice to hear," Cloud spoke quickly, barely finishing each word, making them clash into each other, "I'm cold. Vincent turn the heater up."

"Cloud, give me a sour starburst." Tifa said, putting her hand into his face. Cloud dropped five into her hand, then reached over and dropped three into Aerith's lap, not giving it a thought that she'd never had these, or any candy before.

"What is it," Aerith questioned innocently.

"Sour starbursts," Cloud replied happily. "Go a head, try it. Tifa likes them."

Aerith looked down at the lot of starbursts in her lap, then picked one up and unwrapped it, "Vincent, do you like these?"

"..."

"Do you?" Cloud continued Aerith question.

"I don't know, I never had them. Cloud, don't bother me when I'm driving," Vincent snapped short temperedly, getting annoyed.

"Yes, sir," Cloud joked, a little offended.

Tifa and Cloud watched Aerith pop one starburst into her mouth. She sat there for a moment not doing anything, until the sour taste finally had it's full affect. She sucked her cheeks in while she started making loud slurping sounds as Tifa and Cloud started to laugh hysterically at her way of eating a starburst.

Vincent glanced to the side at the look of shock on her face as she sucked and slurped her starbursts. He too, couldn't help but smile at her inane way of eating a sour starburst, "Are you okay, Aerith?" Aerith looked up at him and slurped in response, making Vincent chock on a laugh.

"Y'know, you are really fun to watch eat sour starbursts. So," Cloud asked, "Did you like it?"

"Yeah, kind of. It was weird tasting." Cloud and Tifa exchanged silly glances with each other, while Vincent pulled up into Cloud's drive way.

"Thanks for taking us home. See ya!" Tifa jumped out of the car and into Cloud's arms, then gently kicked the door shut.

"Bye Cloud," Aerith smiled, waving her hand at them.

Cloud laughed, then threw a pack of sour starburst, and regular starbursts on Aerith's lap, through her rolled down window. "See you later. Bye Vincent." With there good byes exchanged, Vincent drove out of the driveway, then out of sight, leaving Cloud and Tifa to themselves.

Cloud placed an arm on Tifa's shoulder, as Tifa placed an arm around his thick waist, barely even reaching half way. She smiled, saying, "Aerith is such a funny girl."   
"Yeah. Heh! She's a fun person."

"Y'know? I think they'd make a good couple."

"Who?" Cloud questioned her, hoping she wouldn't say the names that she was just about to say.

"Aerith and Vincent."

"WHAT!?!?" Cloud coughed, adding his own opinion, "Yeah, as good as Barret would with you. Tifa, the mans about fifty years old. Aerith's only twenty-something. I'm not sure she's even in the twenties. He could be her dad, he's so old."

"Well, I still think they'd make a good couple."

"Yeah, and my names Bill," Cloud said flatly, with no hint of sarcasm in his voice."

"What? Cloud you're so weird, I mean...Bill" Tifa smiled to herself, shaking her head at Cloud's silly words. "It's a good thing you're good looking Cloud, otherwise-"

"I'd look like you," Cloud said, interrupting and finishing her sentence.

"Aw...What are you implying? That I'm ugly."

"No... I was joking. I was just joking, I swear," Cloud said, waving his hand back and forth, shaking his head side to side. "No. You're so beautiful, it's not even funny. Seriously. Come on, lets have dinner."

"Don't think you're going to get away with this, that easily. You're gonna have to make it up to me, Cloud."

"Okay, okay. I'll make it up to you. I'll let you kiss me," Cloud said joking seriously, making Tifa burst out laughing.

"Oh, yeah," Tifa laughed, "It'll be the highlight of my week..."

"Mine too."

Tifa smiled then grabbed his arm and kissed him, "Come on Cloud, let's have dinner."

* * *

Next: Chapter 7: The Phone Call!

PLEASE READ!!!

A/N: Alright all, I am very sorry for how long it took me just to post this but…well, I had problems, on in which included the deletion of all the chapters including the new one I'd written and the revised one's I've done. This story is not originally by me but I told the author that I'd finish it for her. I have been busy as well- not on this story but…I'll get the original chapters posted and finish this story up at some point. And at _some_ point I'll get around to revising these chapters so that they have my touch and might spice the story up some more. And another thing, I don't know about any of you guys but I have heard that FF.net has been deleting peoples stories without warning, even just for spelling and grammar errors and a bunch of other stupid reasons. If you are a fan of this story or any of the ones written by me and they disappear, I may not notice for a bit- so _if_ it happens, or happens to one of your stories let me know. I have a web site and I have been thinking of adding my stories to it, and anyone who wants their stories or drawings posted there- let me know and I'll be more than glad…(my site is rather boring as of now less you like artwork.)


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